3 Echoes
by LavenderNight67
Summary: The past almost always echoes back to us, like ripples on a sea. It never truly leaves us. For those marked by the darkness of the Hive, it's scars will never truly fade. Can that weakness be turned into a strength? Our heroes must now face down the Vex, and what lies at the very heart of the Black Garden. (rated T just to be safe)
1. Chapter 1

A/n: Okay, so, I've been trying to get a job as... I'll just call it 'crew trainer'. at the place I work. (not gonna say where that is.)

This past week, my manager had me train a new employee, and said to talk to her. I didn't get to till the next day, and she mentioned getting some paperwork.

Now, i'm not 100% positive, but I'm 98.6% sure I got the job.

Later the same day, *this* popped into my head.

And it stuck. Would *not* go away. So, here I am writing it.

Kalara stepped out of the lift into the tower watch. Or courtyard. Or, well, it seemed everyone had a different name for it. She looked around, spotted Gavin, and jogged up. "Hey, Gavin!" he was walking out of the Hall of Gaurdians with Lavender on one side and Quantum on the other.

He smiled. "Hey, Kalara." she jogged to a stop in front of them. "What's new?"

He shrugged. "Not much, got reassigned. Temporarily, of course." He glanced at Lavender, who smiled back.

Kalara asked "So, red's still out and about?"

"No," Quantum replied. "She sprained her ankle." She shrugged. "The tower physicians said it's not serious enough for her ghost to fix, but she should stay off of it." Kalara looked confused "Why not, just, you know." she mimicked a gun to the head "Pshew".

Quantum said "Because it's kind of discouraged. Unless we can't help it. and, if she did, the vangaurd leaders whould know, and she'd probably get read the riot act by Ikora."

Kalara just nodded. Those three could come up with the strangest archaic phrases.

"Well, I just got paged by Cayde-6, so I gotta go. have fun you guys!" she grinned and jumped the fence next to the steps, landing halfway down.

Around Eris she went, walking now. She glanced sideways as she went. "Morning, Eris!"

"The voices are dimmer, Crota whispers no more."

"Okay, good. We'll handle the rest, don't worry!" she called over her shoulder, and down the the Hall of Gaurdians she went.

She passed Ikora Rey. "Good Morning, Gaurdian."

"Mornin' Ikora." she called. She stopped across from Cayde. "Mornin', boss. What's up?"

He looked up from his map, then motioned her around the table, with a mumbled "come around here."

"Sorry." she rounded the table. He straightened. She glanced at the map, wondering why he was allways staring at it.

"Hey, got another mission for ya."

She looked excited.

"You see, we had a bunch of rookies come in not too long ago, and I'm a little busy, you know. So, I could use a hand in getting 'em trained. Want to help?"

Kalara's face lit up. "sure."

"You're a bit of a legend around here now, so, just teach them what you know, and I'll pick up the rest later, kay?"

Kalara nodded exuberantly.

Cayde handed her the data-tablet, and she started reading.

"They're already waiting for you in the crucible. Private matches arena. You know where to go."

she nodded. "thanks, boss!" and she ran to the door before realising she could just go to orbit from there.

She walked out of the starting gate down into the bright Venusian sunlight. Six quite young (to her perspective) Gaurdians were milling about. Another pair were dancing around. 'What have I gotten myself into?' she thought. she looked at her datapad.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

7-14 level hunters (Beginner)

Mylo Pren (human, male) (6)

Flitter Maricus (human, female) (7)

glyster (pronounced glister) (exo, male)(9)

Fon (exo, male) (9)

Nox (Noxiere) (human, male) (9)

Danaxia Glyn (human, female) (8)

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kalara walked out of the Crucible starting area into the bright Venusian sunlight. she turned right, spotting the group she was going to be teaching up ahead.

She paused. Some were dancing, others were just jumping around out of boredome. some were talking.

"Kindergaurdians." she muttered. She shook her head, and commed Cayde. "why didn't you tell me I'd be dealing with kindergaurdians?"

"where's the fun in that?"

she laughed.

"You got this, rookie. You're a hero now. So make it count, okay?"

"Okay." a pause then "Oh, and one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"stop calling me rookie."

"She could have heard he was almost laughing in his reply of "Okay... rookie."

she laughed, then the comm went silent.

Kalara walked forward.  
"Hi guys." she waved. They stopped talking, and turned towards her. Well, so far, so good.

"I'm Kalara Baxtin, I'm going to be training you on how to be a gaurdian."

'I hope' was added inside her head. She took a deep breath.

"I'm going to ask you to step forward and introduce yourselves, going from your left to right."

She looked at the end gaurdian on the left.

"Mylo pren, level six hunter class." She nodded, and the human stepped back. She wondered just how old he was. He looked older, but he sounded younger.  
A female stepped forward. "Hi, they call me flitter." she ducked her head and stepped back. Kalara smiled, noting the shy nature of the Gaurdian.

"Level?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm at seven."

She nodded in acknowledgement.

The next one stepped out without hesitation. He was an exo. "Glyster. Not pronounced like it's written. It's pronounced glis-ter."Level nine." He stepped back.

The other exo next to him stepped out, looking at his classmates. He quietly said "Just call me Fon. Level nine." Then stepped back.

The next one just waved. 'Hi, I'm Nox. I'm human, also."  
Kalara nodded, looking at the other human next to him.

She stepped out, and greeted "I'm Danaxia Glyn. Human, and yes, I am a girl." she glanced at Nox, and Kalara rolled her eyes behind her helmet. She knew the girl was smiling at him from her tone. Teenagers.

She had the data, but for the benefit of the group, she asked "And what levels are you two at?"

Nox spoke first "Nine."

Danaxia said "Eight"

Kalara nodded.

"Okay. The basics. Umm..." she looked around, and then got an idea. "how many of you know how to do a slide?" A single hand went up. It was Mylo.

"Good. How many of you can blink?" They looked at each other.

Okay, next question. who here is a Bladedancer subclass?"

all six hands went up. Kalara chuckled. "Okay. well, you can change subclass later if you want to, so let's start with what you have." she thought for a second, then continued.

"Basicaly, gunslingers have a "golden gun" that they can summon as their super. It's powerfull, it's accurate, and" she paused "It's probably better you have Bladedancer right now."

A few confused looks.

"Sorry, getting off track." A moment's pause, then "Okay, let's start with a slide." she grabbed a rock and walked forward a ways, then carved a line in the ground, then turned and walked backwards towards the group a bit. She stopped, holding up a thumb and forefinger to measure. "mmm, yeah."

She carved another line in the ground, then walked back to the group. "Okay. Let's practice slides. It's pretty simple. and this move can save you from a headshot if you're running towards an enemy, plus it can be used in combination with other moves that can save your life, and even get you critical shots in battle."

She grabbed a couple rocks and walked over, marking either side of the slide-line to make it more visible, then said "Okay, so here's what we're gonna do. we're gonna run till we hit the first line, then slide up to the second line."

She drew out a starting line. "like this."

She ran, slid, and came up at the end.

"Okay, guys. Line up." They did. Mylo, the lowest level, a human male, level six, smiled as he readied himself on the starting line.

"Ready, set, Go!"

They ran forward, and ducked into a slide.

One exo, Glyster, tripped before even making it to the slide. Kalara shook her head. "That's okay, mistakes happen. Let's just try it again."

they jogged back to the starting line. "Ready, set, Go!"

They all made the slide, though she notice a couple came up short. No big deal there.

"Okay, next step." She looked around, and found a large peice of rock (or whatever it was) further on. They followed her as she walked.

"Let's say 'big Bad 'N Ugly here is breathing down your neck..." she grabbed a nearby rock and carved a basic rendition of a fallen into it. "You have to run away a bit, no shame in that." she finished and added "You gotta get some space." she walked forward, carved out a starting line, then a bit further on another one. She walked a little further and carved out a third line. then she walked back.

She glanced at the rock over he shoulder. "Now, what I want you to do is run from this rock to that first line, slide to the second, and when you stop come up and shoot this big Bad 'N Ugly right here." she leaned on the rock.

Two of the rookies looked at each other. "don't worry, I'll be right there with you." she walked over to the line. They lined up to her right.

"ready." she crouched, ready to run.

"set." she tensed.

"GO!"

All seven ran and when they hit the second line ducked into a slide. They hit the third line and Kalara whirled, snapping off a shot.

five of the others missed completely. One glanced the upper edge. Kalara glanced at Mylo. He had been the one to hit the rock.

Kalara shook her head. Several groans and sound of dissapointment sounded.

"It's okay, guys. It's only our first try. Let's go do it again.

"do we have to?" one mumbled, probably to a teammate.

Kalara answered "This is probably one of the most important moves you can learn." Then reassuringly added "Don't worry, it's not that hard."

They returned to the starting line and lined up. Kalara stepped to the side. Danaxia looked over at her, but Kalara said "I want ot see what you guys can do on your own."

The group readied. Kalara called "ready."

They semi-crouched again, ready to run.

"Set." they tensed.

"go!"

They ran and slid. Danaxia went into her slide too soon, Fon too late. Kalara watched them.

"Again."

they jogged to the starting line.

A couple hours later, Kalara was ready to scream. Some of them Just. Weren't. Getting. It.

She sighed "Okay, guys. Let's do a free-for all match. Three versus three. Count off." she pretended not to notice when Nox and Danaxia put Fon between them. "All right. Three versus three. Ten second advance for red team. Show me what you can do. and remember, have fun out there!" she smiled.

Danaxia, Nox, and Flitter ran in seperate directions. Ten seconds later, Blue team (Mylo, Gyster, and Fon), followed. Kalara looked at her Datapad, which not only had their in-crucible location, but a livestream from the myriad of remote cameras scattered across the arena.

About an hour passed, then her comm came on. It was Cayde. "Having fun yet?"

Instead of replying with an equally sarcastic reply, Kalara instead said "well, they're *starting* to get it."

"Good. Wish I could let you guys train longer, but I have missions for some of the gaurdians you've been training. Get them back to the tower, and report in, kay?"

"Okay, boss." Kalara commed her group. "Okay, guys, funtime is over." A couple of groans sounded. "I know, But Cayde-6 has missions for some of you. So we need to meet back where I am then return to the tower.

"why can't we just go to orbit?" Mylo asked.

"Because, I need to do rolecall real quick before we head out." Kalara replied.  
A few moments later, all six of her Gaurdians were there.

"Okay guys. I'll see you later."

They nodded, one by one.

She added "Just remember, you can do this!" as they transmatted out. 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: For those of you who like to tilt your head at fanfiction and wonder if it's a ship, don't. Kalara is with Zanthyr. This is NOT one of those "pair a fancharacter with a canon character" fics. There are other things better than that to write. I'll get to the main storyline in the next chapter or two.

Kalara walked down the steps past Eris, past Lord Shaxx. "Gaurdian, a word."

He had such a commanding voice. she really hoped he wasn't still upset about the whole "Mad Gaurdian in the Crucible" thing. She walked over. He held out an envelope. "You have a challenger, Gaurdian."

Kalara looked suprised, excited, then confused. "Okay, thanks." she continued on towards the Hall of Gaurdians.

Ikora noticed her opening it. "I see you have a challenger." She looked amused. Kalara took out the folded peice of paper, and opened it. She gave Cayde a look.

"Would you like to explain this?"

He shrugged. "What. It's all there in black and white."

Kalara read thee invitation to a private match. "One-on-one crucible match? with you?"

"Yep, tomorrow morning. Care to accept now?"

"Wha-" she couldn't even begin to undertand why. Or if she wanted to do this.

"Take your time, use words."

She thought for a second. "firstly, why?"

Another shrug. "Why not?"

Kalara was becoming slightly annoyed. Ikora said "Just tell her."

Kalara looked at her, "thank you." then back to Cayde.

"Fine. Firstly, because you need the training. You can't go up against the taken king unless you can hold your own against someone faster, stronger, and deadlier than you."

She looked a bit suprised, but remembered Zanthyr's team had been the ones taking out those high-value hive targets. "secondly, It's all for fun. I mean, what can be the harm in it, right?"

Kalara nodded, then a smile formed. "Okay, I'll do it." she set the invitation and elvelope on the table. "But, no flaming gun. I don't like being set on fire just as much as the next gaurdian."

Cayde tilted his head, in that 'you're chicken, aren't you' way. "You sayin' no supers?"

"no, I'm saying no flaming weapons. Of any kind. And I won't either."

"Uh-huh. Okay, but you have to stay in-class. No titan punches, no warlock void-orbs or blinding orbs of lightning. or, whatever that is, and we'll have a deal."

Kalara deflated slightly. Cayde added "Oh yeah, The other part of this little training excersise is to help you to stay in your class when you're around other gaurdians." she nodded slowly.

Ikora added "Cayde is right. They can never know what you are."

"Okay, deal."

Cayde sounded happy.

"Great! see you tomorrow. You know the location. Details are in the invite."

She picked it up, and handed him her datapad. "Here's the results of todays training session."

"Great. Thanks for helping out."

"No problem, boss." and she walked out.

The next morning, Kalara teleported into the Crucible starting area. she took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing... I am so gonna get one-shotted." she sighed and stepped out. Lord Shaxx's voice boomed over the crucible loudspeakers

"The second challenger has entered the arena. Fight, Gaurdians! survive, win!"

She stopped, looking around for any signs of another person.

A tiny flash, a hundred yards away. "Aha!"

before she could move, a gunshot rang out, and she felt the bullet catch her in the ribs. She staggered, realising it had not been a fatal shot. But it was enough to take her breath away. She felt like she was suffocating.

A half second later, it was followed by a blade stabbed through her from behind. This time in the heart. She turned, glaring.

"Mornin' rookie!"

She wanted to punch him. Hard. "Son of a..." but everything went black.

She found herself back in the starting arena. She sighed, shaking her head. But there was no going back now. she wondered how he'd gotten that far that fast.

She stepped out.

"Round Two. Fight. Survive. Win!"

"Okay, where are you?" She ducked behind a rock

BLAM! the hand cannon shot echoed it was so loud, and she was instantly back in the starting area. she commed him "One-shotting someone right out of the starting zone isn't fair."

"Okay, you come find me, then." She gave him ten seconds advance, then walked out. "So far so good." She double-jumped up to the pipe Saniya liked to use to snipe. Then remembered she had to actually go find Cayde, not sit up here and snipe him.

They had an agreement on that. If she didn't hold up her end of it, he'd probly go back to oneshotting her. She made a noise and jumped down, blade coming out.

Then she realised it could reflect the light and put it away. She didn't need it just yet. She advanced slowly, ducking behind different boulders and crumbled walls. "Careful, Kalara." she told herself.

She looked around the partial wall and spotted him, leaning against a wall.  
"Took ya long enough." He fired off a shot and she ducked back behind the rock. She blinked, dissapearing long enough to get to another one. He hadn't seen her yet. Good. She ran and slid under the next shot, bringing up her own weapon.

BANG!

He dissapeared before the bullets even reached him. Kalara cursed inwardly. She had the advantage, and lost it.

"Don't let your enemy know you're coming."

'click' He pulled back the hammer of his hand cannon behind her. "Until it's too late." he emphasized his point by pulling the trigger.

Kalara sighed.

"Round Three. Challenger is undefeated. Make them feel your wrath!"

Kalara mumbled under her breath. "Yeah, right." She double-jumped, blinking invisible then serarched the terrain below. She spotted the familiar figure a ways down the course. she landed quietly in a dusty spot between two rocks and waited. He walked past. she smirked

BLAM!

Lord Shaxx's voice sounded "Payback!"

Kalara grinned. Then tried to think of where she could hide next. She rounded the boulder, and decided he'd never guess she'd stay in the same spot. Nobody ever did. It was assumed by everyone to be a bad idea.

BOWOOM!

The rock exploded when the rocket slammed into it, sending Kalara flying backwards. She hit a wall and felt her ribs shattering, along with other various bones.  
Through hazy vision, she could see him approaching. Her sniper came out. She tried to aim, but the hunter vangaurd eader blinked and dissapeared, reappearing several feet from her. she thought to herself "Please *please* be stupid enough to shoot me with that thing at close range." She knew it would blow them both away at that range.

Out came a sidearm, intead. She glared down the barrel of it.

She respawned, deciding maybe she could just quit. Sit there in the middle of the arena and think of how to beat him. He was going to shoot her anyway, so why make it hard? she was stuck here till he was done with their game. She walked in, sat down, folded her arms.

Or maybe she'd just lure him close enough to get lucky.

"Hey, no camping." she turned and his knife slashed forward.

Kalara sucked in a breath, coughing as her hand instinctively went ot her throuat. She paused, leaned against the wall. When she had gathered her senses, she walked back out, walking around. Cayde commed her.

"What're you doing? You're not even trying anymore. This isn't like you. you're a *gaurdian*. So fight already. Geez."

Kalara brought out her sword. A beautiful gleaming blade with a sparkling purple crystal at the end closest to the hilt. It was classified as a void weapon, not solar, so it was permittable per their agreement. If she could get close enough to strike with it.

She searched for the special ammo synthesis she'd purchased the day before. She imagined her adversary had the same. She found it and activated it, then slid the cylindrical ammo module into place. The crystal of her sword glowed, and she smiled. "Time for some payback."

"Nice blade." She turned in time for him to punch her in the helmet. Then he grabbed her and shoved. She lost her footing and fell, realising what was behind her. A peice of building with twisted metal sticking out.

Her sword fell from her hand as her vision went red, pain radiated through her. he strode up and looked down at her. The flaming gun appeared in his hand. Kalara eyed it.

"Now this is gonna go one of two ways. Either ya quit bein a pansy and fight, or I'm gonna set you on fire. And don't even think about going out of class, because this arena has ability limiters installed, and that ain't gonna happen." He paused "Well?"

Kalara tried to choke something out, but couldn't.

"I'm waiting."

she glared. He shrugged "Okay, fine." and fired.

Kalara screamed. It felt like the bullets were burning her from the inside out.  
An instant later, she reappeared.

She put her hand to her midsection.

She didn't know just how to describe how horrible that was.

But she knew one thing:

She was going to kill him.

Her blade came out, and she jogged down the stretch, sped up to run straight at him. He almost looked suprised at her tactic. At the last second, she jumped up, blinked, twirling midair, and landed behind him she lunged, stabbing forward and up. She wasn't sure how exos functioned, but figured she caught something vital.

"Knew you could do it."

She pulled her blade back, twirling it at her side. He turned as he fell, popping of a shot, catching Kalara in the chest. She 'eep'ed in suprise as she fell, too.

When she respawned, Cayde had allready dissapeared back into the arena. "Probly using stealth again." she muttered. she jogged out, blade in hand. She spotted him fifty feet away. She leaned back, sword angling behind her. The other hand came up, palm up. Her fingers motioned 'Come at me, if you dare'

She swore if exos could grin, he would be. She concentrated and waited. She wanted to know just what he would do, planning.

First, a run that tuned into a slide. He dissapeared as he slid, and came up behind her, and she blinked, dissapearing as he fired. Her sword swung in an upward strike. His dagger blocked it. Cayde jumped back a step, the flaming knife appeared. Kalara smirked.

She twirled striking as he blocked, jumped back avoiding a swing to the midsection by half an inch then bent back to avoid one to the throat. She ducked under the next, bringing her sword back to catch him in the legs. He fell into a sitting position.

"Fun enough yet?"

"Is this really how rookies fight. I'm bored already." Both their sidearms fired at the same time.

As Cayde walked out, he turned and tossed off "Okay. This time, I'm not gonna hold back, so watch your back."

kalara blinked. He had been holding back? Now she dreaded going out there. Cayde commed her "Well, come on. What are you waiting for?"

"I don't think I want to do this anymore."

"Seriously? You can't be that scared of me, are you?"

Kalara rolled her eyes. he added "Cause a minute ago you looked pretty angry. And... not scared."

Kalara strode out and sprinted through the arena. she knew right where he would be. Cayde wasn't in the first area, she jogged down the path to the next one, eyes alert.

A ways ahead in another open area, he was leaning against the crumbling remains of an ancient building. She ducked low, summoning her super. a long blade appeared in her hand, humming with fiery energy.

She stayed low, keeping to the shadows. halfway there, she blinked, dissapearing as she ran and jumped, bringing down her fiery blade in front of her as she descended. She felt the impact, and heard the result.

Kalara opened her eyes, wait, when had she closed them? No matter. She decided to use a gun from now on in this little matchup. She never wanted to hear that sound, the shriek of metal on metal *ever* again.

She was walking back when Zavala's voice sounded across the comm. "Cayde. It's been over two hours. Aren't you two finished yet?"

"Well, we're gettin' there. Rookie still has a few things to learn. We won't be much longer, I promise."

"Alright. But don't take too long. There are other important things that need your attention."

The comm clicked off.

Kalara stopped and turned around, heading back to where those buildings were. She had an idea.

Cayde stopped at the end of the old building, pressed against it for the cover of the shadows there. Up above, Kalara was watching from where she lay atop a tall square pillar. Her comm came on.

"So, what have we learned today?"

She knew he was listening for her. "Let's see..." she smirked and pulled the trigger. The round slammed into the wall next to the exo's head. He ducked and was out of sight.

"Never stay in one place too long, you can get pinned down." she jumped down on the side opposite of where she had seen him last.

"Long range weapons are good..." She dropped into a crounch, staying in the high grass. A glint of sunlight off metal. He hd seen her. She phased and turned invisible, jumping up and doing a second jump back in the direction she came.

Cayde had whirled, expecting her to appear behind him, but Kalara landed, hand cannon between his shoulders, behind him. "But stealth is better." She fired.

"You're too far to the right." He whirled and she blinked, phasing as he fired. The bullet went through Kalara harmlessly as she ducked, firing off a second round at his head.

Across their comms, she added "And overconfidence can lead to your demise."

"Very good. I'm impressed."

"Thank you."

a moment's pause, then:

"Hey, ya wanna go chase rookies in the team matches?"

"Sure, why not."

Lord Shaxx's voice sounded over the loudspeakers "This match has now first challenger has won."

-  
They ran through the arena side-by side. Up ahead, a group of gaurdians, red team, were shooting at another pair, blue team, her HUD read. Their team. They moved in unison. Run, slide, blink, fire. she stood a half second later, running to catch up to Cayde.

"Blue team has the advantage!"

Kalara grinned. "Hey, check it out, rookie at twelve o'clock! The Gaurdin was running away from her. She laughed as she jumped, blinking as she came down in front of her. The rookie fired, missed, and Kalara phased as another spray of bullets passed.

The Rookie ran forward, but Cayde caught her from behind with his blade. A trio of Gaurdians, Hunters, cheered from the right and started dancing.

One pointed. "Hey look, it's Cayde!"

"And looks like he's got a sidekick, too." another noted.

Kalara looked suprised for a second, glanced sideways, but the Vangaurd leader was allready further down the course. She double-jumped to catch up.

They paused behind a barrier. Kalara looked around it. "Well well, look who's on the wrong team. Heh." Cayde looked around the opposite side of the barrier then they exchanged a look.

"Ya did promise em a rematch. He shrugged." Kalara grinned, though it went unseen for her helmet. "Let's do it.

They ran at the pair of Titans. "Hey guys, I'm ba-acck." Cayde counted over the comm "one, two, three." They ran forward in unison, blinking as they slid, stopping right in front of the pair, who turned thinking the duo were behind them.

'Click'

Both Cayde and Kalara pulled back the triggers of their hand cannons, which were against both Titans' helmets.

"You said you wanted a rematch." Kalara taunted, laughing.

"You're gonna pay for this!" Ivis threatened.

Cayde commed "Get ready to blink."

Kalara nodded. The hand cannons pulled back slightly

"mmmm, now."

The Titans whirled and swung, but both Hunters phased. Then they fired, catching Cal and Ivis in the chest. They staggered. Cayde noted "I think you missed your target a little, didn't you?"

"Nope."

Cal fell, dissapearing. Ivis fell to his knees, gasping for air. He stared at Kalara. She smirked and aimed at his head. "Don't ever threaten me again." and fired.

"Victory! Blue team has won the match!" Cheering was heard from the other team members. Kalara and Cayde hoisted their hand cannons to one shoulder, and strolled away, back through the crucible.

"Well," he said "I gotta get back to the tower, gotta be reponsible an' all that." Kalara nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna call it a day."

"I'll have the next training roster ready for you tomorrow morning. Don't be late."

"I won't."

They teleported away, and Kalara wondered what kind of craziness tomorrow would bring. 


	3. Chapter 3

Kalara walked into the hall of Gaurdians to find the rookie class at the leaders' table. "Hi guys." She counted gaurdians, then asked "Where's Mylo?" She looked to Cayde.

"Dunno. His comm went dark somewhere on Mars late last night. I was kinds hopin you guys could go find him."

Kalara looked at her group. "Okay guys, field trip!"

Gyster asked "Field trip?"

"It's term my friend Avaria uses... nevermind."

She summoned her ghost and they took off for Mars. As they were in transit, Kalara commed the group. "Remember, stay together, watch your backs, and if you run into trouble yell for help. We're going into Cabal territory, so stay off your comms unless it's important."

Cayde's voice came across the comm. "Okay, here's what I've got so far. Our Hunter was doing patrols around the area of the lost city. There's Taken there too now, but just watch your backs, and all of you should be fine."

Flitter commed "Cool! there's a lost city on Mars?"

Nox commed back "Well, yeah. It's, like, buried or something."

They exited orbit, and the group teleported down. Kalara's ghost made that beeping noise. "I'm picking up a signal on a gaurdian frequency. but it isn't in the lost city."

"Then where is it?"

"At one of the Cabal bases, just up ahead."

Kalara summoned her sparrow. "Okay guys, sparrows out."

They hopped on, and headed down the winding path. Kalaara commed "Cayde, we found his signal, but it isn't in the lost city. It's in one of the Cabal fortifications."

"That doesn't sound good. Just find him and get him out of there, okay?"

"Will do."

They sped up slightly, heading off to the right. Up ahead, there was an opening in the mountain, the door to the Cabal fortification. Off a little ways past it sat a smaller round building. Several barriers had been set up between the base, it's building, and where they hopped off their sparrows. The base looked abandoned, though. "Stay here." Kalara pointed downward. She jogged ahead, into the base.

"Mylo? Mylo, you in here?" She rounded a corner and suddenly heard a roar from outside, followed by heavy gunfire. "Oh no." she ran back towards the opening just in time to see her entire class go flying in all directions.

Out came her auto rifle.

The three Cabal legionaries at the the mouth of the base turned toward her. She opened fire, catching the first two in the head. The third ducked behind a shield.

Kalara could feel the energy bolts sizzling across her armor as she aimed and fired at the hand holding the weapon. She snapped off a trio of shots and the Legionary stumbled back, dropping it's shield. Seveal more rounds dropped the giant creature, and she ran out, sliding past three more. "Get behind the barriers."

Nox asked "Any sign of Mylo?"

"No, he's not in there."

She moved right as one legionary fired a shot past the barrier and felt her foot hit something. She looked down.

It was Mylo's ghost. "Why hello." she knelt to brush the sand away from it and pried it from the dry Martian sand. She gasped. The lower half of it's finials were gone, and the rest of it was cracked, as though it had been crushed. It's eye was flickering, like a light bulb going out. She picked it up.

The light went out.

Kalara's eyes narrowed. "This isn't good." she said to herself. She put the ghost in her bag.

To her right, two Scions had run past the barriers, and Glyster and Fon were putting the hurt on them with their flaming knives. The Scions fell.

Nox pulled out a rocket launcher. "Watch this!" he fired into the group, sending one legionary flying. Danaxia threw a pair of grenades. Two more fell.

Kalara looked left. More Cabal were emerging from the building. One of them was carrying Mylo by a leg. The Hunter looked unconcious. The Legionary said something in their language and tossed the limp Gaurdian behind it into the mouth of their base.

Kalara said across her comms "we have to clear them out." she looked past them, hoping the hunter was still alive.

Another rocket slammed into a shielded legionary. Danaxia reloaded. Another stomped up to Danaxia and the center of it's shield started to spin Kalara yelled "Look out!" but it was to late. The Hunter went airborne.

Kalara's HUD sounded. "Gaurdian Down." she shook her head, then commed "Remember what you learned. Lure them out, get some space." She jumped sideways to narrowly avoid a bold of energy. The group fell back a little bit, cabal following.

Suddenly, Nox yelled "I see him!" and ran forward, doing a blink-slide. A second later, his grenade detonated, taking down the two Cabal he had passed.

He knelt next to her classmate, rolled him over, a made a noise into the comm before saying "This is bad. We have to find his ghost." Kalara stepped out with her own rocket launcher, taking down three more legionaries before picking off their Scions.

To her right, the group took down the last one. They walked over to where the human hunter was. Danaxia jogged up. "Did you find him?" Nox nodded, backing away so they could see.

Kalara looked at the group. "Go back to orbit, wait for me there. I'll handle the ghost-hunting."

"What? why?" nox asked.

"You guys helped clear out the Cabal, but if more show up I don't want you in danger. I know that wasn't easy for you guys. I can handle it. Okay?"

"Okay." Nox summoned his ghost, followed by Danaxia, and teleported away. The rest of the group followed.

Kalara hit her comm. "Cayde, we found Mylo. But it's not good news."

"what happened?"

"It looks like he picked a fight with a group of Cabal legionaries. They crushed his ghost."

There was a pause, then,

"He didn't make it, did he?"

"No." Kalara sighed. "I can't just leave him here for the Cabal to play with. What do I do?"

"Well," Cayde sounded like he was thinking. "There's plenty of sand around there. I'm sure you can think of something."

Kalara nodded. "Kay."

A little while later, Kalara was back in her ship, and they were headed home.  
Nox commed "Did you find his ghost?"

"yes"

"And?"

she paused before replying carefully. "His ghost was nonfunctional."

"What?"

Then everyone started to talk at once. Kalara turned off her comm, and squeezed her eyes shut. The kid had just been a rookie. She could have, should have, taught him better. She took a deep breath and tried to shove the emotion away.

When they exited hyperspace into orbit, Kalara commed "Meet me in the command room." then tranmatted down.

The group walked in as Kalara set the dead ghost on the table. She shook her head. They were still all talking at once. Nox pushed to the front of the group.

"You sent him on that stupid mission, you know. All your stupid speeches about finding something bigger and badder than us to fight with."

Kalara stopped for a second. Had she really said that? "Woah, hang on. What I said was that if you don't train you wouldn't be able to. I never told him to go find a whole base full of Cabal to try to kill." she paused then added "That would just be stupid."

she knew she had said the most wrong thing she could when that rage appeared on his face. He ran at her before his classmates could catch her and she blinked, phasing as he moved forward. She went in the opposite direction, toward him. He stumbled trying to stop he was moving so fast.

She could see Zavala move slightly, shifting his attention to the hunter. the word 'deja vu' went through her head.

Nox's blade flashed as he started to move.

But the commander was faster, catching him before he had taken three steps.  
"that's enough!" He looked over Nox's shoulder at Kalara. Nox looked down. Kalara had her hand cannon out, aimed at his chest. Nox's eyes narrowed.

"Don't do it." Kalara warned. He looked looked away, shifting like he might try anyway. She decided a new tactic was needed. "I promise you won't like it."

Nox glared, but after a second relaxed, straightening.

Kalara let her aim drop, then turned and set her hand cannon next to her on the edge of the table, then turned her back to it and leaned on the table.

"It's your fault Mylo is dead." he hissed as he walked past. She wordlessly watched him. the rest of the group stood a second, then turned and walked out.  
Kalara turned and leaned on the table with both hands, looking down and taking a deep breath.

After a minute, she looked up at Cayde. "So that's what that looks like." she remarked.

"Yeah, welcome to the other end of the conversation."

After a second, she just shook her head. She straightened. "I don't think I can do this."

"Whattya mean? You're doing just fine. and accidents happen. Besides, I have an intermediate class you'd be just perfect for." He set another tablet on the table. She reached out and took it. "They're higher level, just need a little polishing before their next missions."

She read over it.

15-20 (intermediate) hunters

Nox (see above) (17)

Danaxia (see above) (16)

Avaria Lavis (lav or Lavender) (human, female) (18)

Tanner Opis (human, male (remedial) (18)

Alexi Dazmakov (human, male) (16)

Cayde added "And no trainer's pets. Ya get me?" she nodded, reading on. Her eyebrows went up. "Remedial?" she lowered the tablet, intrigued. "what did he do?"

"Abandoned mission. went offf-trail, left his team in the middle of a firefight. Nearly got them killed. Well, you know what I mean." waved a hand vaguely.

"Started a fistfight with their team leader and, well, there he is."

"Hmm. Looks like we have a lone wolf in our pack." she nodded. "Okay. Guess I'll go find out how it goes."

"I'm sure you'll do fine." He shrugged

Cayde added "Oh, and couldya do me a favor?"

"hm?"

"Quit stealing my lines, wouldya?"

Kalara paused, then chuckled, grinning. "Can't help it," she started backwards, motioning. "They just sound so good." she turned and walked out.

As she walked out, she heard Ikora say "You're rubbing off on her, you know."

"Okay. but, that's a good thing, right?"

Kalara snickered.

"I think one of you is enough. I don't think we could handle two."

Kalara laughed loud enough for them to hear.

She walked across the courtyard, down to the fence to look over the city. Her intermediate class didn't start for half an hour, so she just stood there, thinking of activities for the new group.

That made her think back to the lower level classes. She had to find some kind of valuable knowledge this group could use in battle. She sighed, mind going back to Mylo. He had been promising, even hitting the boulder when the others had not.

She started typing

1 Teamwork is key. Going in alone is dangerous and dumb.

2\. don't let them get behind you.

She jotted down a few more points, then there was a ding, her ghost paging her to let her know it was time. "That went by fast." she muttered.

she transmatted to her ship.

Cayde commed her as she went to transwarp. "I made some changes to your training roster, just wanted to let you know. I took Nox off the training roster. Danaxia, too. They need some time, and I have a couple others that need some extra training anyway."

Her tablet read "Updating..."

15-20 (intermediate) hunters [updated]

Aries Ormez (17) (awoken, male)

Klyne Dendron (16) (human, male)

Hairo-2 (male, exo) (17)

Avaria Lavis (lav or Lavender) (human, female) (18)

Tanner Opis (human, male (remedial) (18)

Alexi Dazmakov (human, male) (16)

She reached Venus and transmatted down. She walked in and strode towards them. They were lined up, all but one who was looking around, shuffling his feet in boredom. Kalara thought 'that must be Tanner'

Lavender and the Gaurdian next to her were talking. Lavender glanced up, then waved. "Hey, Kalara!"

Kalara smiled. "Hi Lav."

"what're you doing here?"

"I'm the one leading this class."

"Oh. cool. Wait, where's Cayde?"

"busy with missions, you know, leadery stuff." Lavender nodded.

"Okay, let's get started." Kalara backed up a bit and said

"Okay guys, let's go down the line and state your name and your level." Tanner, on the end to Kalara's left muttered "we're not kindergaurdians." Kalara smiled. Apparently the term was becoming rather popular.

The first stepped forward.

Hairo-2. Level 16, Fireteam swiftspark"

Kalara nodded, suprised a bit at the mention of his team.

"Aries Ormez, level 17. Fireteam Light Strike."

"Klyne Dendron. level 16, fireteam Die, Die, Die."

Kalara laughed. "That's a good one. So you guys can chant your team's name while running at the enemy, right?"

"yup."

She chuckled and pointed at the next person

"Avaria Lavis, Lavender to my team. Fireteam Boob Squad." she saluted. She quickly added "Oh, and I'm level 18 now."

Kalara smiled inside her helmet."Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"Alexi Dazmakov, level 16, fireteam killswitch three-five-nine." Kalara nodded.

The next hunter, Tanner, paused. Kalara motioned. "Come on."

"This is stupid." he kicked at the dirt.

"It's just getting to know each other."

"I don't want to be here."

"But you have to if you want to get back out there. Besides, it'll be fun, I promise." he looked up from where he was looking at the dirt. after a minute, he huffed "fine. Tanner Opis, level 18, fireteam Moon Howlers."

Kalara nodded. "Okay. The first thing we're gonna do is have a little skirmish, I want to see what you guys can do." Tanner looked up, then at the group and back at Lavender.

'Now he's interested' she thought. "I'm going to count off, according to where you are on my Roster."

They seperated into their groups. The first was Hairo, Klyne and Tanner. The second was Aries Lavender, and Alexi.

"okay, let's go! red team gets ten seconds headstart... go!"  
Hairo, and Klyne took off. Tanner waited a second, then ran and double-jumped.

"I really hope he didn't just run out of the crucible." Kalara muttered.

She followed as Blue team jogged after the first team.

Red team fired first, hitting Aries in the chest. Alexi double jumped across the field. Lavender smirked and ran, blinking invisible as she went. She stayed that way as she slid and came up behind Klyne. She jumped up and Kalara couldn't quite see what she did, but she hit her mark and down he went.

Tanner was over to the right, and had his rocket launcher out. He aimed over their heads and fired. A section of the ancient structure came loose, the thick peice of wall turned as it fell, landing flat on Lavender.

Kalara cringed.

Aries came back to the area, double-jumping the entire way. A few seconds later, Klyne followed. Kalara didn't see Lavender until she appeared in the shadows of the same building Kalara had used for cover yesterday.

she was ducked into a crouch, her sniper rifle in her hands. Kalara jumped up onto the pillar she'd used the day before and walked closer to the edge to observe the skirmish.

Lavender spotted her target. She waited until her temporary teammates had engaged him, then ran towards him while his attentiion was averted. She ran, blinking to turn invisible, jumped up, and Kalara could have sworn she hovered half a second befoe hitting him with...

She tilted her head slightly. That looked a lot like a voidwalker attack. Kalara hit her comm. "Hey guys, I've been given a priority mission, so you guys have the day off. I'll see you next training session,okay?

"Okay." Lavender replied.

-  
End notes: I'm breaking this up some, so I don't have that "long chapter/short chapter" thing going on. 


	4. Chapter 4

Kalara found a shady spot under the "climbing tree" to review the footage of the training skirmish. She hoped her suspicions were wrong.

the video came on, and Kalara muttered "I need the view from the other end." switching to that camera. Kalara scanned the area and spotted Klyne. And Avaria further on, headed straight at him.

She slid, came up behind him and jumped. Kalara's eyes widened. she had just hovered and... She paused, went back, and watched it a second time to be sure.

Kalara ran, slid, turned invisible, came up behind Klyned and jumped up, levitating before landing a powered punch square on his back.

She kept watching. Sure enough, when she went after Tanner, she had jumped up and was off the ground for a full second before summoning an orb of void energy. She launched it into him with an open-palmed strike.

Kalara considered deleting the footage, but Cayde would want to know why, and Kalara couldn't say there was anything wrong with the Cricible's cameras. Then she would have to deal with Lord Shaxx.

She sighed, turning it off. She paced back and forth. "What to do, what to do."

She could go to the Vangaurd leaders with this information and let them decide, but they would possibly banish Lavender from the tower and take her ghost. People like her weren't supposed to exist. And Lavender hadn't exactly endeared herself to the Vangaurd leaders, either.

Kalara rubbed a hand over her face. If she kept this secret, which would be nigh-impossible, there was a chance someone would eventually see it, and the secret would be out.

And if she tried to help Lavender conceal what she was, and have to tell her what she was in the process, she would be in a great deal of trouble, along with Lavender when that happened.

"There's just no win-win in this." she shook her head. She looked at the tablet again. She could always move all the video from the crucible server onto the tablet and "loose" it. But that would be concealing the evidence, and all the worse for them both if Lavender was ever found out.

Kalara shook her head and headed down the steps into the hall of gaurdians.

Cayde looked up. "Hey, back so soon?" then he saw the look on Kalara's face.

"What happened? Did the 'lone wolf' bite ya too hard?"

She shook her head. "I think we have another one."

"another what? lone wolf?

"No." she handed him the tablet, rewinding the video. "I need you to watch this, keep an eye on Lavender."

"o-kay." he took the tablet, and played the video.

Lavender had jumped up, levitated, and punched the other gaurdian from behind. Hard. He said "Call me wrong, but didn't that look like a Titan punch to you?"

Kalara nodded. "Keep watching her, after, uh."

Cayde noted "That looked like it hurt."

"Yeah. after that."

Lavender came back down the course, ran, blinked invisible, slid, and came up behind him, levitating for a full second before summoning void energy to palm-strike Tanner with.

Cayde set the table on the table. "Yep, I'd say she is. So what do we do about her?" Kalara went back around the table as the video was sent to Ikora and Zavala's tablets.

Zavala looked to Kalara "Another what?" Kalara looked from Ikora to Zavala. "I think we have another Transcendant."

They both looked suprised. She nodded. Ikora asked "How can this be? so many in such a small span of time?"

Zavala spoke before Kalara could answer. "That doesn't matter. We need to find her and speak with her. Now. Do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, hang on. She hit her comm. "Hey Lavender?"

"Yeah? OW! hang on..." there was a scuffling sound, then her voice sounded again. "sorry, I was busy. what's up?"

"Uh, the leaders want to speak with you again?" she said, a little slowly.

"Uh-oh. what did I do now?"

"I don't know, I don't think it's bad." she looked confused. It possibly was. A pause then

"Okay, be there in a bit. I'm in team matches right now."

Lavender quickly replied "No, I think it's pretty important. I think you should come back now."

"Oh. Okay." her comm clicked off.

Zavala said "It is disconcerting that so many abberations are popping up so frequently." Kalara bristled slightly at the term.

Cayde defended "Hey, one of them is standing right here, ya know."

Ikora suggested "Perhaps there is some link to why there are so many" she glanced at Kalara "gaurdians displaying unusual abilities in such a short period of time."

Kalara was thinking about it.

Zavala said "It is becoming a concern. Perhaps the ones we find should leave the tower, never return."

Cayde put in "Yeah, great idea. banish all the unstable overpowered gaurdians with possible psychotic tendencies. Brilliant."

"Hey!" Kalara huffed, hand on hips. "Still standing right here."

"Oh, present company excluded, of course."

Kalara rolled her eyes.

Ikora looked from Cayde to Kalara "then perhaps you should leave the room, we don't wish to offend you."

Kalara shook her head. "Lavender is my friend. She's a gaurdian just like everyone else. Besides, if you made her leave the tower, her team would be devastated by it. SHE would be devastated by it." she shook her head.

"She's not a bad person." she looked at Zavala. "I think she and her team have been goofing off and running patrols to avoid interaction with the other gaurdians. She's not evil, she's confused." she looked back to Ikora.

"She doesn't understand what's going on. What she can do."

Zavala looked like he understood. "Then perhaps she must never know. If you can train her well enough-" his sentence was cut off when said gaurdian walked into the room. Kalara gave Zavala a look that read 'time to decide what to do.'

Lavender stopped, walking into the room slowly. "ookay. why are there so many serious faces." her gaze flitted around the room, then landed on Cayde. "did I do something wrong?" she looked to Zavala. So did Ikora, before going back to her.

Lavender stopped next to Kalara, who said "I don't think you did." and a meaningful glance at the vangaurd leader, who frowned.

Lavender cringed slightly, Kalara noticed her summoning her ghost behind her back. so that's how she got away so quickly after "the dancing incident".

There was a minute's silence, then Zavala looked at Kalara "Tell her."

Kalara frowned. Now the choice was in *her* hands. She had to think fast. "Just promise you'll give her a chance, that's all I ask."

A small nod.

Kalara took a deep breath and then got an idea. she asked "Okay, I'm gonna ask a couple of really wierd questions here, so don't get wierded out, kay?"

Lavender looked *really* lost, but nodded.

"First, were you alive during the golden age?"

"no. I completely missed it. You know that."

"Okay, secondly, how old were you when your ghost found you?"

Lavender made a noise. "I don't remember. Nobody remembers."

"Okay, are you older than you were supposed to be?"

"Yeah, I remember my Ghost telling me something like that. Why? does this have something to do with that? am I in trouble for being too old?"

Kalara shook her head, thankful when the Hunter's ghost dissapeared. "No. But we have something in common. So does the other person this concerns."

Lavender blinked. "Okay, look, did Tanner tell on me? cause I really didn't mean to hurt him in the crucible or anything, I mean, he dropped an *entire wall* on me.

Kalara smiled slightly. "I know. And this isn't about him." She looked away, caught Ikora's nod, then looked back at Lavender.

"Have you ever wondered why you can do things that others in your class can't"

"Like what?"

"Like, umm, punch people really hard. Or throw orbs of void energy, stuff like that."

Lavender thought for a second, then replied "I've never seen it." she thought for a second, then asked "Can they?"

"No." she looked suprised, Kalara continued. "There are individuals who can channel powers outside of their class. Like the Titan punch, or the warlock void-strike."

Lavender's eyebrows went up. Kalara's smile got a little wider.

"Nobody knows about them because they aren't supposed to exist. They're a... bit of an abberation, if you'll forgive the term."

"Nobody is even allowed to know of their existence. And those who do are forbidden from speaking about it." she paused, then added "They're called Transcentants."

Lavender's jaw dropped a little.

"and you are one of them."

Lavender gasped.

"But!" Kalara added quickly "You can NOT use those skills anywhere near any other Gaurdian, or even out in the field. That knowledge, that skill you have, has to remain a secret. It's the law of the tower."

Lavender looked shocked.

"Transcendants are usually considered dangerous and generally unstable..."

"Ouch." Lavender pouted.

"Sorry. Not my words. But anyway, those with such abilities are usually asked to leave the tower." Lavender gasped and started to look hurt, realising her world, her home, could be ending. She looked to Zavala, face pleading.

"Knowledge of Gaurdians with the ability to change classes would upset the entire balance of teams, and having those with such great abilities would cause jealousy, anger, and we don't need more fighting here in the tower, or even in the city."

Lavender was starting to choke up slightly. Kalara put a hand on her shoulder. "I asked comander Zavala to give you a chance. Just because you're Transcendant doesn't make you unstable, it doesn't make you dangerous, okay?"

Lavender nodded, and took a breath. Kalara continued "And I'm sure there'll be occasions where you *will* be able to use your full abilities, like if nobody else is anywhere around, or in the crucible private matches. I know how much you love those."

Lavender nodded again.

"But you have to learn how to think, fight, and live like a Hunter." Lavender nodded.

Zavala asked "Have you ever used these abilities while with your team? have they seen them?" Lavender thought, then slowly said I... don't think so."

He looked from Lavender to Kalara "I don't think this is a very good idea." he told her.

"You gave me the chance to prove myself. I know, we had a rogue gaurdian to hunt down."

"Who was Transcendant, like yourself."

"He was turned evil by that hive weapon. Well, sorta hive... Nevermind."

"Who's previous owner was also a Transcentant."

Lavender watched them debate with something close to amazement. She thought commander Zavala was pretty intimidating, and Kalara was just standing there arguing with him like it was a normal conversation.

Kalara stated "who used hive technology to alter his weapon, starting the whole hive superweapon crisis."

Zavala sighed.

Kalara added with an air of finality "And you know it took another Transcendant to stop him."

"but the crisis is over, now."

"So, there's no need for us now? Last I checked, the taken king is still out there."

Zavala gave her a warning look. "There is no need for that tone, Gaurdian."

Kalara took a step back and ducked her head "I apologise, commander."

She said no more, waited for his reply.

After a second, he looked at the pair. "Here is what is going to happen. Kalara, you are going to train Lavender how to be a hunter indistinguishable from any other. No abberations or out-of-class abilities. If I hear about any, even one," he looked to lavender now "you will be escorted from the tower, and not allowed to ever return." he looked back to Kalara "Do I make myself clear?" Lavender nodded mutely, looking completely terrified at that statement.

"Yes, sir." Kalara politely replied.

"If I can make a suggestion?" Ikora looked to Zavala "Perhaps it would be best to evaluate what abilities Lavender can tap into before her training. For future reference, of course."

Lavender looked confused, but Kalara smiled slightly. Zavala thought for a moment, then replied "We can discuss it later. Then to the pair "You are to stay in the tower until tomorrow when we have decided what to do next. Kalara, wherever she goes, you go." Kalara nodded, and Zavala went back to studying his tablet. Lavender took that as a cue to leave, and turned to walk out.

She took a deep breath. "wow, that was intense." she looked at Kalara, then started walking across the courtyard. she slowed, and started to tear up again. "They want to kick me out of the tower." she moaned.

Kalara saw the potential meltdown and put a hand on her shoulder. "Woah, easy there. He didn't say they would, he said if you can't stay in class." she looked around wildly, but thankfully no Gaurdians were nearby. She lowered her voice. "We can't talk about this here. And you can't be making a scene, either. We gotta be secretive about this, remember?"

Lavender nodded, sniffled, then wiped a hand across her face.

"Come on, let's go find something to do." Kalara directed them toward the Tower Hangar. 


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, the pair had been paged to head down to the Hall of Gaurdians. Lord Shaxx called out "Gaurdians, a word."

Kalara nearly grinned as they walked up. He handed each of them an envelope. Lavender opened hers, and looked at Kalara. "a private match?"

"It says it's a skirmish. Probably you and me."

Lavender continued to read. "Red Team: Vangaud leader Ikora Rey, Vangaurd leader Cayde-6, Vangaurd commander Zavala, team leader."

Her eyes went wide. "Whaaaaaat?"

Kalara chuckled. "It's an invitation to a private match." she sounded excited. "It's super-fun. I just had one with Cayde the day before yesterday."

Lavender blinked. "so... wait, I don't get it."

Kalara chuckled. "Come on, lets go talk to them. I'm sure they'll explain it to you." Lavender just followed.

Ikora said "I see you recieved your invitations."

Kalara nodded, still smiling. She threw a glance at Cayde, who mimed a gun. Or was pointing, she wasn't sure which. The pair looked to commander Zavala.

"The skirmish we have arranged is to further understand and evaluate your abilities. As Transcendants, it will be the pair of you against the three of us."

Lavender swallowed, nervous. Kalara patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, it's fun." another glance toward Cayde, which read 'I'm gonna get you.' she swore he was giving her a 'go ahead and try it' look back.

Zavala said "I'll be expecting to see you there." Kalara nodded. "I know, time and place are in the invite."

From her right came "Hey, wha'd I say about stealing lines?"

"Sorry." she tossed off.

"Better be."

Ikora huffed humoredly "Enough you two."

Zavala glanced at him, then nodded. "That is all." Kalara nudged Lavender. "Come on." they walked out.

Later, in the crucible, Lavender stared down the course. "Think they're here yet?"

"I don't know. I would think they would comm if they were. Come on, let's go find a good open space to start things off."

"How about we just stay here so we can see them coming?"

Kalara shrugged. "Okay, that works. But we should have some space behind us, too. In case we have to back up some."

"Good idea." They walked about halfway back up, and waited.

Suddenly, Lord Shaxx's voice rang out over the intercom. "Red Team has entered the arena."

The trio stode towards them. Ikora on the left, Cayde-6 on the right, and commander Zavala in the middle. They stopped.

Cayde commed "We're here."

Kalara commed back "I can see that."

The loudspeakers announced "Team Skirmish begins. Fight! Survive! Win!"

Cayde's flaming gun appeared in his hand. Lavender gasped softly. "Is that a solar weapon?"

The Vangaurd leaders tensed, then ran at the pair.

"Oh no, not doing this! So not doing this!" Lavender turned and ran.

"Wha- Really!?" Kalara turned to look at where she had gone.

WHAM!

Zavala's fist landed squarely in her back. Kalara reappeared in the starting zone.

"Red team has gained the advantage!"

She jogged out "Not for long!" even though she knew the person behind the speakers couldn't hear her. She grinned as she ran. Up ahead, she could see Lavender tense as Ikora summoned a HUGE orb of void energy.

Kalara commed "Phase as soon as she pulls back!" Lavender had her back to a boulder, Cayde on her right, Zavala on her left. Kalara knew why they weren't attacking. Too much assault and the young gaurdian would shut down and stop fighting.

As soon as Ikora pulled back slightly to launch the orb, Lavender phased, the energy harmlessly passing by her. Kalara launched into the air, grinning inside her helmet, they didn't see her, till Zavala barked out "Incoming!" and put up a dome shield.

Kalara launched her own orb of light and sent Ikora flying. Cayde snapped off a trio of shots and Kalara phased as she came down, firing off her own.

Lavender darted inside the dome shield and landed a power punch on the vangaurd leader from behind. She gasped, and commed "I'm sorry!"

She looked over at Kalara, and jogged over to meet her in the center of the area.

Lavender sounded suprised. "Wait, did we just WIN!?"

The loudspeaker declared "Blue team has won round one. Begin round two! Fight! Survive! Win!"

Lavender looked towads the start of the course. "Ohhh, I can't believe I just *did* that! He is gonna be SO mad!"

Kalara chuckled. "Don't worry, this is the crucible. It's what it's designed for. Besides, each one of us." she waved a finger at Lavender then herself "Have everything all three of them have."

Lavender tilted her head, not understanding.

Kalara explained "Every class, every sub-class. They are all at our fingertips." She held out a hand, and a ball of void energy appeared. In the other hand, a ball of solar energy appeared. Kalara combined them, and it turned white, then it dissipated.

"Oohhhhh." Lavender was starting to understand. And just in time, too. The vangaurd leaders were walking towards them. And Ikora looked annoyed. She levitated, summoning a *much* larger orb of solar energy than the void orb before and pulled back to launch it.

Lavender thrust her hands outward, and a dome shield appeared. Kalara followed suit, and a second one appeared just outside of it. The energy slammed against the shield and roared against it, pushing both of them back. But together, it held.

Both gaurdians lifted a little from the ground and white energy formed around their hands. Zavala summoned a dome around the three vangaurd leaders.

Kalara commed "Ready?"

"ready."

Both raced forward, launched into the air and came straight down into the dome, smashing the energy into the ground in front of them.

All three vangaurd leaders went flying in different directions. Kalara and Lavender straightened, and Lavender looked down at her hands. "Wow. That was..." she looked at Kalara, at a loss of words. She shook her head. "That was intense."

Blue team has won. round Three!"

They appeared again. Lavender muttered "Uh-Oh." they were walking purposefully towards them. She leaned over and commed, whimpering "is he smiling?"

"uh..."

She could have sworn she saw Zavala smirk a little.

Lavender suddenly said "Oh Crap! he is!" and took off running. The Vangaurd leader took off after her. Kalara smartly jumped out of the way, laughing. "Get 'er, get 'er!" she laughed.

Lavender commed back "Hey! Who's side are you on!?"

she grinned she commed "They probly spend so much time in the tower being serious, they have no time to just kick back and have fun."

"Lavender yelled back over the comm "so glad someone is!"

Kalara jumped straight up, phasing as Cayde fired. She came back down, and found that Ikora had teleported right up to her "What the!?-"

Void energy slammed into the hunter and she felt herself fly off the ground as the energy hit her in her chest. She reappeared at the starting area, and a second later, Lavender followed.

she coughed out "He has a rocket launcher." she leaned over for a second to catch her breath.

Kalara's comm dinged, but on a different frequency than theirs. "Yes?"

Zavala's voice sounded "your teammate has quite the potential, but not the focus required to use it." Ikora joined in with "We feel as though she is holding back. Any suggestions on how to encourage her to stop doing so?"

Cayde cut in with "Hey, I could set her on fire. That usually works."

"NO." Kalara made sure he heard that. "She is terrified of fire. That's probably the worst thing you could do right now. She's getting there on her own. I can see her starting to relax. It'll just take some time."

Zavala said "Allright, but we can't take too long with this. We have other important matters that need our attention back at the tower."

"Right." Kalara switched back to Lavender's. "Ready?"

"I guess so."

"C'mon. We can kick their butts. Let's go get 'em." Kalara said.

Lavender just nodded. "Okay." A nod, and they jogged out.

"Round Four, begin!"

they skidded to a stop as another rocket streaked past Kalara and slammed into the wall behind them. Kalara double-jumped over Cayde, who was running toward Lavender.

She turned invisible as she went into a glide, landing to power-jump up onto the pillar she had used for cover at the end of her match with Cayde. She crawled to the edge and looked down, watching Ikora and Zavala searching for her below.

An explosion sounded from where Lavender was. Sensing trouble, Kalara jumped down, and yelled "Don't shoot don't shoot!" Ikora had void energy humming from her hands and Kalara noticed Zavala had switched to an auto-rifle.

"What did he do?" she asked, pointing.

As if on cue, a painful-sounding scream sounded. Cayde appeared, running towards them. Kalara took a step back and commed Cayde "Don't shoot!"

Zavala also called "Hold your fire."

The Hunter Vangaurd leader jogged up. Kalara looked at him, then commed "What did you do!?"

"Nothin'. Just trying to get a point across."

Off in the distance, Kalara heard the rumble of thunder.

"You set her on fire, didn't you." she glared at him, and some of it must have crept into her voice, because he replied "what?, I was trying to get her to fight." he shrugged "worked with you, didn't it?"

"Yeah, except I didn't have my last life end in a fire."

"She took a breath before continuing. "That was the one thing I said you should not do. We were supposed to get her to use all her powers, not get her completely ticked off at you!"

she took a breath before continuing. "I only have about ten to fifteen seconds to explain this, but she has told me the flashes of her first life she's had. some of us have them, in our sleep, when we respawn.

After you left the crucible I went into the open free-for-all." she paused, hoping the other two leaders wouldn't hold her next words against the rookie. She hunted down the last person who set her on fire, and I ran across them on accident once but wasn't paying attention.

I came back two hours later, she was still "exacting her revenge" she did air quotes, and glanced sideways at Cayde."

"Sorry, but you're in for the worst two hours of your life."

"I Think I can handle it. No big deal. Rookie wants a fight, respawn a few times, yeah. I got this."

"Not a few times." she held up a single finger. "Once." Kalara watched the approaching thunderstorm.

Ikora said "A thunderstorm? here?"

Kalara replied "Not a thunderstorm. Lavender."

She added "She has hidey-holes even I don't know about. I found her on accident, while trying to run for cover."

Ikora said "Then we won't let her get that far."

Kalara gave Cayde a look. "The one thing I said not to do. The exact opposite of what we were aiming for, and you go and do it."

"I said I was sorry! Geez!"

Kalara walked in front of the group. she noticed the vangaurd leader behind them focusing on the approaching gaurdian. "she's just angry, let me talk to her."

Lavender was walking forward, dark swirls of mist swirled around her, flashes of lighting echoed though the clouds. Kalara felt something was... off.

Lavender's voice was icy.

"Kalara, MOVE."

"No."

"Move."

"No"

"I won't ask again. I just want a little revenge."

"there's a difference between revenge and what you did yesterday."

"He had it coming."

Kalara took a less harsh, more even tone. "You told me what Jarin did to you. You told me how you felt. I saw something similar yesterday. Which end of that were you on yesterday?" she could tell the Gaurdian's anger wavered a bit. she added, tone a little quieter "You know I didn't approve, and I still don't."

Lavender's head tilted slightly, condescending sarcasm evident. "Oh, so now I need your approval? I don't know about you, but I was just having fun."

Kalara bristled visibly at the tone. she said, out loud "Avaria, go to orbit. NOW." She took a step forward. "Clear your head, come back when you're not angry."

She commed "Lavender, Avaria, listen to me." she glanced sideways, then hit her private comm channel to the other Gaurdian. "I know you're angry, but think about it. Jarin marked you. He had Thorn.." she shivered, then continued. "He had it against your face. It left a scar. I'm glad nobody saw it before you got rid of it." she paused, then added "You know what happened. where do you think all this rage is coming from?"

"I was set on fire. That's where it's from."

"You sound just like he did."

Lavender looked at her for a second, then transmatted away.

Kalara took a breath. Behind her, Cayde said "I dunno what you were so worried about, I could've handled her."

Kalara made a noise. "She knows she can channel every class, every sub-class."

Zavala asked "And you think it's still a good idea to have her in the tower?"

She looked over at him. "yes. Besides. Someone with that kind of ability could be a great asset to the Vangaurd, rather than an enemy." she glanced at Cayde again, then back to Zavala."Don't worry. She's just a little bit upset. It happens." she shook her head. "She just lost her temper a little bit. It'll pass."

Zavala looked skeptical, but Kalara looked towards the starting area. A full minute passed. Then another. Then Kalara's comm came on.

"Did you tell them?"

"What?"

"About what happened with Jarin."

"No. I swore to keep your secret. And I will."

"Okay." Kalara heard Lavender take another breath, then "I'm just glad the scar went away when I respawned."

Kalara nodded. "I'm just glad nobody saw you jump off the tower."

"heh. yea." though there was little humor in it.

A moment passed, then Kalara asked "You coming back down? They're still not done here, and by agreeing to their challenge, we have to honor that."

Lavender sounded hesitant. "But what if it happens again?"

"What? Cayde setting you on fire, or you going off on him?"

"Both."

"Oh trust me, he's *not* gonna be setting you on fire anymore. I... sorta yelled at him."

"WHAT!?" Lavender nearly laughed in disbelief.

"Yeah. They asked me how to get you to stop holding back, Cayde suggested it, and I told him not to, so when he did, I got annoyed and told him off. rather loudly, too."

there was a pause, as Lavender was wondering just how much had been said "So that's what you were doing in the starting area."

"Yeah. Oh, and Zavala said you have, and I quote, great potential."

"REALLY?" Lavender sounded suprised.

"Yep. Plus, I saw your Thunderstorm. It's impressive."

"Thank you. Think I can do it again if I'm not super ticked off?"

"Yes. Plus... oooooh." Kalara grinned, though it went unseen. "If you can, it would be *major* payback on Cayde."

"What why? OhhhhHoohoohoo." Lavender realised what she was talking about.

"Yeah." Kalara kicked at the ground while they talked. "He's an exo, they're mechanical. Can you say lightning rod?"

Lavender laughed, then added "I'll be right there."

their comms clicked off. Kalara said "She's coming back in. I'm gonna meet her at the starting gate." she started forward, then stopped. "Oh yeah, and she said she's not holding back this time."

They nodded. Ikora added "Good, neither will we." Kalara nodded, then turned and jogged away.

Lavender was waiting when Kalara reached the starting area. Kalara suggested "We should start a new round, so it's on the records seperately from before. Plus, it'll make that chapter of the video easier to find, if this plan goes right."

Lavender grinned. "So let's figure out what we're gonna do."

The announcement came over the loudspeakers "Red team has won the round. Round Five. Fight!"

Only nobody appeared.

The vanguard leaders paced slightly as they waited. Cayde finally said "It's been nearly five minutes, what could they possibly be doing?"

Ikora glanced over at him "They're planning something."

"Zavala put in "Yes, but what?"

Behind them Kalara was hovering behind them, surrounded by a dome. Inside it, stormclouds swirled. Lightning flashed. None it even made a whisper of noise, it mas muted by the shield surrounding it.

Next to her and slightly behind her, Lavender was focusing, channeling every bit of energy she could into her Thunderstrike attack.

Kalara dropped silently. Lavender pulled back and yelled "Hey!"

They whirled.

Lavender threw her hands forward, unleashing a giant bolt of white-purple lightning straight at them.

There was a blinding flash and a deafening Crack, so loud it almost sounded like an explosion. The thunder vibrated the ground and reverberated around the ancient buildings around them.

Lavender floated calmly to the ground. "That. Was. AWESOME!" she whooped the final part of it. Kalara grinned, too.

Lavender glanced over to the tall grass where Cayde had been standing. "I wonder if his ghost can find all the peices." She walked over, bent, and picked something up. Lavender jogged over and snatched it away. "Lavender!" she admonished. "That's just mean."

"what? can't you imagine Cayde walking around for a week with a squeak he just can't figure out?"

Kalara laughed out loud at the mental image of him trying to strut through the tower looking all bad-aft, squeaking with every other step. She chuckled, but dropped the miniscule peice of metal. "come on, we have people to impress. Practical jokes can wait." She turned and walked away. Lavender watched her go for a minute before following.

"Blue team has won this round! Round Six! Fight!"

Both Gaurdians waited in their respective hiding spots. Lavender grinned and called "Here they come!" Kalara just grinned. Lavender hefted her own rocket launcher, grinning inside her helmet. "shall we go say hello?"

Kalara laughed. "Yes, let's."

The two stepped out and fired. 


	6. Chapter 6

The hologram over the table of the vangaurd leaders showed a formidable-looking shape. The ship of the Taken king, Oryx. Ikora said "My contacts near Saturn say the weapon fired only once."

Zavala noted "It's not like the Queen to attack a superior force."

"How could she have known? How could anyone?" She looked up, then added "We need a Warlock. Inside the Dreadnaught." She knew they had an unworldly understanding of the universe in general, but also knew that the last time they went into the darkness, it, had been quite the losing battle. And Ikora and Zavala didn't allways see eye-to-eye on on what was the most important.

Cayde, sensing the oncoming argument, put in "Here we go."

"Our first priority must be to protect the city. Our Gaurdians got a good look on Phobos. Whatevere it was, it turned Cabal against Cabal. Wiped out their base in minutes. How long would we last?"

Ikora had turned away, annoyance crept into her tone. "Until we understand what we're dealing with..." The rest of her sentence was cut off when a glowing green orb landed atop the center of their holographic projector, the perojection flickered, then dissapeared. Ikora glanced to the side to see Eris Morn walking towards them.

"They Are Taken." Eris had a serious, almost dark tone. More than her usual 'scare the crap out of the rookie Gaurdian' tone. This was something deeper. More serious.

Cayde didn't even glance over. "Eris, get your rock off my map."

She ignored him, walking up to them. This was too important for casual bickering. "It hasn't spoken since Crota fell." she approached the table. "It speaks now because Oryx has arrived." She walked past Ikora. "Come to fill the covenant of his son."

Ikora paused a moment, trying to understand "But why fight the Cabal?"

"Not fighting," Eris shook her head. "Taking." she looked at her. "Controlling their will." she looked over, Cayde had retrieved her orb from the holo-emitter.

Commander Zavala said "so we focus on his armies. Kill these taken until he's all that's left."

Eris looked across the table and said "Whatever you kill, Oryx willl replace."

Ikora said "The Dreadnaught, then. How do we get past that weapon?"

Zavala added "Without ending up like the Awoken."

There was a brief silence, then Cayde glanced over. "I gotta go, uh, see about a ship." he tossed Eris's rock back to her and started walking out. Zavala looked over.

"Cayde. Our discussion has not yet concluded."

"I know, that's why I'm leaving."

Kalara and Lavender had just arrived back from patrols, and had spent half an hour chasing around the tower's soccer ball, climbing the little tree by Banshee's shop, and basically just goofing off. Kalara's comm dinged. "I'm being paged." Zanthyr appeared, walked up. "Hi guys, did you get paged, too?"

"I did." Kalara supplied. "Where's Saniya?"

Zanthyr shoook her head. "we were sent to check out Phobos. Taken were everywhere, she started having visions. I guess Warlocks are psychic or something. She...I dunno." he shook his head. "It was creepy as hell, though. They started getting reaaly bad toward the end.

Some big ugly hive thing showed up. Then Eris Morn started talking about Oryx. I think it was one of his echoes, or something. Saniya flipped out." He rubbed a hand over his face. "We barely made it out of there. She's with a bunch of other Warlocks and they're trying to figure out what went wrong."

Lavender trailed behind them as they walked along. Kalara asked "Did she say what she saw?"

Zanthyr shook his head, sounding confused and a little worried. "She just kept mumbling, something about the darkness, and the tower in flames." Kalara got a strange look on her face. "I don't think I want to know any more."

She looked over at Lavender. "Well, we need a third person. And there's nothing better than have a.." she stopped and looked around quickly. The tower Cryptarch looked over at them. she continued "a good friend who's in the same class as me." they continued on. Lavender leaned over and whispered "Nice save."

"Thank you."

When they arrived at the tower Hangar, Cayde-6 was waiting for them on the launching platform. They walked up.

"Hey, just the Gaurdians I was looking for."

"You paged us."

"Yep. Got a mission for you guys. It's kinda one of those low-key missions, so you guys gotta kind of slip out of the Tower quietly, if you know what I mean." he held out a tablet. Zanthyr took it.

"This is it, isn't it?"

"Well," Cayde paused "Sorta. I mean, it's not every day that you get to use a stealth drive-enabled ship to sneak into the Hive Dreadnaught and sabotage it's weapon systems."

Lavender looked at the ship. "Isn't that Eris Morn's ship?"

a shrug. "Yeah. So? "

Kalara looked at the ship then back at the exo.

"She's letting me -well, you, borrow it."

she nodded. She looked at Zanthyr, who said "We're going to try and board the Dreadnaught to set up a transmat zone so other Gaurdians can get on board?" He looked at Cayde confused. he explained.

"And they can take out the rest of the hive in your way so you three -wait, where the other one? wasn't there a Warlock with you earlier?"

Zanthyr nodded. "she started having visions when we were on Phobos.." Cayde held up a hand to stop him. "You know what? I don't want to know. Just go get out there and do your thing." They started forward. behind them, Cayde called "And don't break my stealth drive!"

"we won't!" Kalara and Lavender chorused back.

They stopped in front of the ship Lavender looked up at it, and a hand went to her face, as though sensing the dark energy around it.

Kalara asked "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Zanthyr took a deep breath. "Well guys, ready to go kick some major hive butt?"

Kalara looked left at him, then right at Lavender. She noddded. "Let's do this."

They transmatted to the ship, and it took off out of the tower hangar. As they went to orbit, Kalara explained "We can't let anyone know what we're up to. I've heard about unsanctioned covert missions being launched, never been a part of one."

Lavender inserted "Till now."

Kalara nodded. "I'm guessing Cayde came to us behind the other leaders' back because Zavala still has to sign off on all offworld missions. Probably still worried about hive duplicates of thorn that might be out there."

"I hope not." Lavender shivered.

"Don't worry. If there are, we'll break them, too." The ship went to transwarp.

Two minutes later, the ship slowed and shuddered into normal space. Up ahead was Saturn. Lavender, seated next to Kalara, leaned forward from the back to see. Up front, Zanthyr double-checked everything . If he was going to fly the ship, he wanted to be sure eveything worked right.

In front of them lay a vast debris field of broken and shattered ships. All from the reef. As they eased through, Zanthyr's ghost said "It only took one blast from the Dreadnaught."

The comm came on. It was Cayde. "When you're through, It'll never fire again." Zanthyr looked over at his Ghost, which was floating over is left shoulder. He nodded slightly.

Cayde added "Just don't forget to create a transmat beacon, so other Gaurdians can land." a pause, then "Not everybody's got stealth tech. And a ship that smells like hive. Good luck, Gaurdians."

Zanthyr smiled slightly and nodded. His ghost said "Activating stealth drive."

The ship hummed as it came on, and both hunters leaned forward to look out the front window as they cleared the debris field.

They were level with their target now, a small open space just to the right of the weapon's 'eye'.  
Zanthyr's ghost looked down at the console. "I'm picking up fluctuations in the power conduit." It then looked back at him.

Over the comm, Cayde said "Relax. I modified the tech myself. Probably just Saturn's electrical storms running interference."

Zanthyr nodded in agreement.

And alarm went off, red warning light on the console blinking. Lavender muttered "uh-oh."

He looked up then down, trying to find out where the warning sound was coming from. His ghost sounded suprised at first, then looked at him, upper set of finials lowered slightly in an "I told you so" look. "It's malfunctioning, It's malfunctioning."

Kalara suddenly remembered what Cayde had said in the hangar before takeoff.

"Did you break my stealth drive?"

A shimmer passed through the ship as it reappeared. But they kept going.

Zanthyr said "We're halfway there allready. Maybe they won't see us?" He sounded like he didn't believe himself, either.

They approached the eye, it's huge gaping maw a round circle of darkness. Zanthyr's ghost floated, projecting a look of worry. It whispered "you think they can see us?"

As if on cue, two lines of bright green energy streamed from each side towards the eye of the weapon. Kalara figured the open space had energy channels at the top and bottom of the opening. The right stream poured downward around the eye, the left up around the top of the circle as the ring of the weapon lit up bright white. the energy focused inward toward the focusing point.

The Ghost exclaimed quickly "I Think They Can See Us!"

Zanthyr slammed the throttle forward, and the ship's engines jumped into full throttle. The ship streaked forward toward the Dreadnaught.

He leaned forward, hoping they could reach their target before it fired.

A glowing orb of green energy formed and exploded outward. Zanthyr insinctively threw up his arm to block.

The ship exploded, sending debris flting in all directions.

A second later, the trio reappeared two inches off the floor of the open space. Kalara leaned over and put her hands on her knees. Lavender walked back a few paces and sat down.

Across the comms, Cayde asked anxiously "What happened? everything alright?"

Zanthyr looked behind him. His ghost sounded slightly annoyed "Why wouldn't we be alright?" a pause then "we're just stuck here with no ship and no transmat zone."

"Great. Toldya my stealth drive would work."

Kalara shook her head. Lavender mimed slapping someone. Kalara could guess who.

Zanthyr walked towards them and Lavender slowly got on her feet.

"Alright. I'd like to tell you the strength of the city is behind you, but as long as that Dreadnaught's still firing we can't risk reinforcements. Head inside and see if you can find whatever's powering that weapon."

Lavender walked past. "Plus, since nobody but Cayde knows we're here, we're stuck here by ourselves." she shook her head. They headed forward, then turned left. To their right was a wall, with silvery-grey beams angling downward toward them. Kalara wondered what the piles were where the beams met the floor, but on second though decided she didn't want to know.

as they went further down, they followed the slanted beams. Zanthyr turned to lok at the wall for any openings. He suddenly caught a flicker of something out of the corner of his eye further on. "what?" He passed the beam and angled out into the open space to give them room ifn case they had company.

It was a floating orb of energy. It made a strange noise somewhere between a bang and a shrieking sound and darted through the opening so fast it looked like a tiny comet streaking away. His Ghost said "Same thing we saw right before Phobos fell apart." it beeped, adding "Might be some kind of probe. Expect trouble."  
"Come on." He knew they had seen it, too. They jogged forward.

When they reached the short corridor, it was floating just outside the other end.  
"What is it?" Lavender kept her eyes on it.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna try to catch it and find out." zanthyr ran forward. "Zanthyr wait!" she remembered what his Ghost had just said. But as soon as they reached the end of the hall, it made a noise that sounded like a cross between a bang and a scream and dissapeared.

the narrow strip of stone before them shimmered and dissapeared. Kalara walked to the edge and looked down. The stone had been the walkway across a deep and dark chasm. She stepped back.

Zanthyr's Ghost exclaimed "The bridge across just dissapeared! it vanished."

"Give me a second, I'll check with Eris." A couple moments passed, then he was back, sounding slightly confused."Yeah, she says it's probly just a resonance spell, whatever that is. Just..Don't... Don't trust anything."

Zanthyr's ghost said "How about you let me out and I'll take a look." The Titan held out his hand, and his ghost appeared. Sure enough, the grid outline of the rock walkway appeared on his HUD. "Hey guys, our ghosts can detect where it is." He pointed. Out came theirs. "Remember," Kalara said "Stay alert. We are deep in hive territory. Watch out for our ghosts when you don't need them."

They stepped out onto the walkway one at a time, Zanthr first, then Kalara motioned for Lavender togo ahead, taking up the rear, in case anything came at them from behind. Kalara's ghost beeped. She knew that was his way of laughing.

"Oberon, I swear, do NOT say "Don't look down."

"Aww." but it kept silent. Lavender glanced downward. "Dangit Kalara!" In front of them, Zanthyr flailed "Wooah." he sounded off balance. "Why'd you say that!? You know I don't like heights."  
"Sorry."

Beepbeepbeep

"Hush, you."

They made it across, and Zanthyr glanced at his HUD before going to the right. Down the hall, and Zanthyr stopped. "Eww! What is that!" He eyed the grublike worm wiggling on the ground in front of him. Lavender and Kalara came up on either side "Disgusting." Kalara wrinkled up her nose.

Zanthyr summoned his Ghost, which went over and scanned it. "According to the Worl'ds Grave, the Hive ingest those worms, not for sustenance, but for survival." a beep, then "Spores, moths, worms. All things Earth's ancestors believed grew from the dead."

Lavender looked to her left. "THey, there's an opening here. But we have to duck to get through." she dissapeared. "Hey, wait for me!" Lavender followed. Zanthyr gave the thing another disgusted look before following. He glanced left asw they walked and called "Hey, hang on."

Three thralls were down on their hands and knees, and it looked like they were eating something. They didn't even know the trio was there. That is, until Zanthyr opened fire. "Okay, all done." They continued on.

They crouched to get through another opening and turned left, following the winding tunnel. They had almost reached the end of it when the comm came on. "Any luck with the weapon." It was Cayde. Probably wondering how much longer it would take them to get the mission completed. Zanthyr's ghost replied "we've only scratched the surface of the Dreadnaught."

Zanthyr turned right and whined "Aww, Man!" There was a narrow walkway sticking out from the door, but it was only five or six feet long. And below it was another chasm. Well, it seemed the whole room had no floor. Kalara idly wondered if half the Dreadnaught was nothing but open space.

Their comms came on. "Hive keep vital operations deep in the core of their architecture."  
Zanthyr edged out onto the stone, slowly making his way to the end. On teir coms, Cayde continued. "You're gonna have to get your hands dirty."

Zanthyr summoned his ghost. It scanned, and the next floating slab of rock appeared o his HUD. He judged the distance, Ran and jumped. His ghost dissapeared when he jumped, and for a second so did the slab of rock. Until his feet landed on it.

He brought out his ghost again. The next one was further away. There was no room to back up and run-jump, so he did a power jump. As he went up in the air, he could see the far edge of it he was aiming for. Then the slab of rock vanished and he thought he had overshot. He let out a startled yelp, but the rock was there.

Time to jump for the final one. It didn't look that far. He backed up, ran and power-jumped. He landed on the ground beyond it. He turned around in time to see Lavender then Kalara making their way over.

Through another short corridor Gavin punched a trio of thralls Kalara pointed. "Do you hear that humming sound?"  
"Yeah!" Lavender darted ahead into the next area. There was a beam of light running downward on a slight angle, channeled through a collumn of rock. Another angled up from the floor. Between them was a brilliant beam of light, and suspended between the two rocks was a dark orb.

Zanthyr's ghost told them "That energy powers the weapon."

As they got closer, they could see four prongs, one at each corner of the opening of each bit of rock. A greenish colored fog surrounded the open part of the beam. A forcefield. The Ghost commed "Cayde, what do we do?"

"Okay, hold on." there was a pause, then "Eris is going on about breaking the necrotic...aw, just shoot it." The trio grinned and pulled out their weapons. Zanthyr's ghost said "Ah, there's a shield up. Let me take it down for you."

It floated over to the conduit, scanned it, and a second later the green field was gone. The beam flashed into a swirling orb of glowing dark energy. All three shrugged and opened fire. The orb exploded.

There was a whir of something losing power, and Zanthyr's Ghost said "Okay. It's down." it beeped then added "I'm picking up other channels to the weapon."

"find them. It won't stop firing until you shut them *all* down."

They continued on and Zanthyr called out "Taken Thralls ahead." Kalara tossed a grenade. "what thralls." she grinned, walking pased. Zanthyr chuckled "showoff."

They continued on, taking out three taken accolytes and tried to find their way through the mazelike halls. Up one set of steps, through a corridor, jump down to another, though another door.

They ascended another walkway to a circular platform where two taken thralls and an acolytes eye waited. Lavender snapped off a shot at the Taken Thrall on the right "Does that thing look like a mini-servitor to you?" Kalara eyed it then ducked as a shot from it passed over her head. "I guess so.

Zanthyr jogged up and punched the Taken Thrall, whirled and punched the Acolyte's Eye. They jumped up to the circular platform to the left and down slightly around the rock.

"I see it on my HUD!" Zanthyr ran into the room. Three more taken Thrall were waiting. "I got this." He jumped up over them, and came down with a punch that took out two of them at once. Kalara rounded the pool of liquid and boulder to the left.

Suddenly three more Taken Thrall came running towards them. Lavender felt something hit her in the back. another Trio of Taken Thrall and another Acolyte's eye appeared where she had just been standing. She tossed a grenade at them.

Kalara brought out her sword, just for fun. She hit the first and the second dodged behind her. she could feel it's claws rake over her back armor before she elbowed it away, turning with a downward slash. She whirled and lunged, stabbing the third. She twirled her blade and walked over to Zanthyr, the shield on the second energy stream allready taken away by his ghost. "Ladies first."

She grinned and switched back to her Auto-rifle. Lavender fired off a couple rounds as well. The orb exploded.  
Zanthyr's ghost beeped. "The weapon's cycling down. Lets find another channel. They moved across another open area and across another walkway.

Zanthyr tossed off a grenade. The first Fallen acolyte dissapeared in an orange flash. The second stumbled towards them. Lavender aimed and fired off a row of shots. It vanished. An acolyte's eye suddenly appeared right in front of Zanthyr. He punched it. It had no effect.

Blinded by it's energy beam, the Titan couldn't see which way to go. Lavender ran up and punched it. Hard. It fragmented and dissapeared.

Zanthyr blinked.

"You okay?"

"I think so." he sounded disoriented.

They waited till the momentary blindness had passed to move again. Kalara nudged him "Now I see whay that's so much fun." He chuckled.

Just inside the next door, the pair rounded the pillar and something whizzed past, too fast to see what it was. "What was that?" As soon as Kalara spoke, two more came at them. Her HUD read 'Shadow Thrall' Gaving punched one, the second got past him and Kalara punched it. "Hmm. Think I'll stick to my own skillset. For now, at least."

behind them gunfire rang out, and a second later Lavender appeared. "what *were* those things?"

Kalara leaned over to make sure no more were coming. "My HUD read 'Shadow Thrall'.

Lavender "hmm"ed and they moved down the corridor, weapons aimed toward the right where it curved right. The door to the conduit room was on the left. Zanthyr saw movement and fired. Then he saw what had just put up it's shield. "Hive wizard." He backed up. Kalara leaned over and looked. "Taken wizard." she corrected.

Lavender grinned She moved past them and ran into the room, lightning crackled around her as stormclouds formed. She jumped up and unleashed a blinding bolt of lightning at it. The Taken wizard shrieked as it disintegrated. "What Wizard?" she called.

"Hey," Lavender called "Quit stealin my lines!"

She realised the mission was being monitored half a second too late. She expected Cayde to comment on it, but when none came, she just sarcastically sighed in relief.

Lavender had already jogged up the steps and had her Ghost out to remove the final forcefield. It fropped, but then something strange happened. Another shield appeared around it. Lavender fired off the rest of her clip before she realised it. "What?"

She summoned her Ghost again and Kalara screamed "look out!" she whirled. Two shadow Thrall had snuck up behind her. She turned and punched them. They disintegrated. "I don't know what you're so worried about. Those were just shadow thrall. Geez."

Another came from her right. She shot it in the head. An explosion sounded further ahead. Zanthyr was behind a rock, rocket launcher out. Without the thrall blocking her view, she tried to see what he was shooting at.

The Tortured wizard hurled an orb of dark energy, sending her stumbling back. She fell, and Kalara ran over to help her up. "You okay?"

Lavender glared at the Taken wizard, and hissed out "Fine." Two more shadow thrall were on them, slashing at the pair. Lavender brought out her blade and stabbbed one, whirled and slashed the other. Zanthyr fired another rocket. The Taken Wizard dodged it.

The Wizard rounded the other side of the rock and Lavender saw it before Kalara did. It was holding a replicate of Thorn. "Look out!"

The Tortured Wizard fired, and Zanthyr staggered back, hand going to the smoking hole in his armor. Kalara screamed "NO!" and Ran for him. The Wizard fired again.

the Titan fell.

For a second, Lavender was awestruck by the weapon. Then reality struck hard and she realised if this Wizard wasn't dead within the next five to ten second, Zanthyr *would* be. For good.

Anger surged through her. She snarled, ran straight at it, Jumped up, phased, and smlammed down from above it, sending the lightning straight down from it's head to it's... well, she didn't know if hive wizards had feet or not because they hovered, but when she hit the floor, tendrils of lightning raced along it, electricity arced from her armor through the air in every direction.

She had landed to come down on one knee. She rose, nodded to Kalara who channeled her light into Zanthyr's Ghost. he reappeared. "Thanks."

She nodded. He looked over at Lavender "Uh oh!"

"What?" they saw her walking towards the energy stream. She summoned her ghost.

In her hand was the hive copy of Thorn.

Dread like cold lightning flashed through Kalara. "Lavender!" She jogged towards where the hunter was holding it, staring at it. Lavender smiled slightly.

"Put the hive replicate of Thorn down."

She loooked over at them, voice eerily calm. "Don't worry. I'm not effected." The shield hummed and dropped. She took a step back and fired. The dark orb exploded. She heard Zanthyr's ghost declare "The weapon's down!"

She smiled, almost in a sinister way. "The Hive, crippled by a weapon of it's own making." she held up the gun to inspect it. "It's really quite ironic, isn't it?"

Kalara eyed the gun. Lavender tilted her head. "You're afraid of it aren't you? She paused for a second, then chuckled in a normal tone "C'mon guys, I'm just messing with you, geez." she summoned her blazing gun, then tossed the Thorn copy into the air, aimed, and fired. The hive replicate exploded.

Zanthyr's ghost commed "Cayde, what's our next move?"

"we need that transmat zone up and running. There's a massive hull breach near your position. That'll be your best bet." the comm clicked off again.

"you heard him" Zanthyr took the lead and they jogged toward the marker on their HUDs

Through the winding halls they went, until it finally opened up into a room with three collimns on one side. Beyond that was the hull breach. The trio stopped abruptly, looking up at the reason for the hull breach. a giant (to them) ship had imbedded itself in the side of the dreadnaught.

As if on cue, her ghost sounded on the comms "A Cabal ship. Skyburners Congress. Must've deployed from Phobos."  
Cayde commed "Cabal? We'll deal with them later. Secure that transmat zone." The comm clicked off.

Kalara ducked ahead, using the shadows as cover. She peered around the metal and waved them over. Zanthyr went next, Lavender stayed put until they moved on. "Just hide where I do."

Lavender replied, whispering "I don't see why we can't just kill 'em all."

Zanthyr replied, half whispering "Because, they're not here to get us. They're getting revenge for the Cabal the Taken, well, took."

Kalara hopped over a peice of metal when a legionary wasn't looking. "Why are we whispering? we're using comms." She glanced back wards.

She stopped and ducked down "Hold on."

She edged forward, then commed "Okay, stay low, move slow. They're so interested in each other they won't notice us." She slowly edged around a group of Hive Knights, they followed. Their HUDs marked the spot, a floating square. Gavin handed Kalara the marker. She looked at it a moment, then handed it to Lavender. "Here. Why don't you do it." Lavender stood for a second, then stabbed the base into the ground.

Zanthyr's ghost said "Activating transmat link. Our ship is inbound."

Their comms came on. It was Cayde. And he sounded SMUG.

"Hey Zavala, want to know what a transmat zone on the Dreadnaught looks like?"

"you landed a gaurdian on the Dreadnaught without authorization?"

"Oh yeah, Can I have Authorization?"

Both Lavender and Kalara laughed.

"we'll discuss it later." a pause then "Gaurdian. Take care of that tank. Or the transmat zone won't matter."

"Tank?" Lavender turned just in time to dodge a flaming red ball twice the size of her head. On their HUDs, a red square with a star in it marked their next target. A Cabal Goliath. Gavin pulled out his rocket launcher "Ready to Kill the Badguys Till They're Dead?"

Kalara grinned "And Then Kill 'Em Some More."

She sumoned a flaming orb in her right hand, and a void orb in her left. She put them together and held the combined white orb there.

Lavender levitated, thunder rumbling around her. Streaks of electicity started to arc from her armor. The trio charged forward.

Lavender came back down briefly, long enough to power jump, electricity crackled in the air around her. Suddenly, it flickered. She came down, fist slamming into the metal tank. "AAAAAOOOOWWWWWW!" She held her hand. A legionary fired from behind her, sending her flying off the tank. It turned.

BLAM!

The Hunter was instantly incinerated. "Lavender!" Kalara ran towards it, jumping up to miss another fireball. The tank's turret fired seven or eight smaller blue projectiles. She double-jumped sideways midair, but they followed. She lost her footing as they struck her in the side and hit the ground, falling sideways. "Distract it!"

"No problem!" Zanthyr swung out from behind a pillar with his rocket launcher and fired. A Legionary appeared to his left, flanked by a second. He punched the first, it staggered back, but then started forward. It swung, and he grunted as it connected. He hit it again. This time it fell. He raised his rocket launcher, but forgot he was to close.

BOOM!"

Kalara gasped when she saw him flying back. He hit the ground, limp. She winced and looked at her hand. four of them had burned through her armor, and she wasn't sure how deep after that. She pulled herself behind a chunk of debris, lifting her hand. "Ghost" It floated over, scanned her, then said "hold still."

It's beam changed frequencies, and it floated back. "You're lucky they didn't hit anything vital." she nodded and eyed the Cabal between her and Zanthyr. The tank was between her and Lavender. She took a couple of breaths and waited, already feeling her energy returning.

She backed up, jumped, and double jumped up over the tank, noticing the cluster of projectiles following. As she came down, she mujttered "I hope this works" and put her hands out. A flickering blue dome appeared. The first four projectiles slammed into it, making it flicker. The fourth made it through, catching her in the midsection. She doubled over, stumbled behind the wall. "Ghost."

"Really. You should be more careful." She ignored the comment, waited for him to finish.

"Thank you."

"No problem. That's what your ghost is for, after all." Lavender looked over. Lavender had fallen just outside of the wall. Her ghost added "Well, that and opening doors. And hacking computers. And-"

"Allright. I get the picture." She waited till the tank was facing away and reached out, channeling light into Lavender's ghost. She reappeared and Lavender stepped out and yanked her back behind the barrier.

"Huh?"

"We have to sneak around and get Zanthyr."

"The tank got him, too?"

"Uh... yeah. Let's just go with that." Kalara grinned inside her helmet. It was a total rookie move to fire a rocket launcher at close range. But teasing him about it would have to wait until later.

They jumped down to the level below the fighting and ran. Both jumped, blinked invisible past a group of fallen, and landed next to Zanthyr. They both channeled light, bringing him back in a matter of seconds. He looked at them then where he had been. Kalara said "Yeah, shielded Legionaries can do that."

Lavender cut in with "Wait, I thought you said it was the tank..." but the two were already running back toward the tank. "I think we should take out the Cabal and any fallen first." Zanthyr said. "Good idea." Lavender punched one. "We can't fight everyone at once.

"Are you sure about that?" Lavender floated past, lightning humming around her. One shielded legionary walked up to her and started punching. She just stood there, it fell, grunting as it succomed to the electrical charge. Lavender ran and launched a lightning bolt at the tank. Kalara summoned her flaming gun and ran, phasing at the next set of cluster-rockets.

They passed through, slamming into the ship's rubble behind her. She fired off three shots, jumped, reloaded, double-jumped in the opposite direction, and fired three more before ducking back into cover.

Gaving jogged past, aiming as he went. He fired off two shots, hid behind the next barrier, and leaned out to reach the ammo crate. He looked up as the cluster rockets screamed toward him. He jumped back, raising his arm. Kalara heard him wail in pain. Lavender commed "Are you allright?"

A few panting breaths then "Yeah. I guess do."

Kalara fired off two more shots, waiting for it to turn towards her. When it did, Zanthyr reached over to the ammo crate. He bit his lip. Five of the projectiles had burned through his arm in various places. One got past, he didn't want to look to find out where. He didn't want to look to see if he still had his arm, either.

He rested the front end of the launcher on the ground, the back end on his leg. He reloaded, tilting it so he could shut the catridge door with his right hand. He pulled the loading bolt back and the first round clicked into place.

He was starting to feel dizzy. Lavender launched another lightning bolt, and Kalara popped off two more shots. He hefted the launcher with one hand, held it, and pulled the trigger. The recoil knocked him off his feet, but it hit it's mark. He sat up. The tank screeched to a top, the shriek of ruined metal echoing around the area. He fell back, heaving a sigh of relief.

After a few deep breaths, he summoned his ghost.

"Oh my." It scanned the appendage, then the right side of his chest. his Ghost backed up, sounding apologetic. "I think there is too much damage." He pulled out his sidearm. "Back in a minute." he pulled the trigger.

A second later, he reappeared, jogged over to them.

their comms came on. It was Zavala. "Gaurdians. Cayde just briefed us on your... unorthodox mission. Your victory, no matter the method, is a Vangaurd victory. You have our thanks."

Lavender paused then yelled "WOOOO! YEEEEAAAAAAH!" She jumped up and down. Zanthyr grinned and started dancing. Kalara laughed an joined him. Lavender ran overr and joined in.

Cayde commed in "Everyone loves a bad idea when it works. Now excuse me, gaurdians. I have to go have an... uncomfortable conversation with Eris about her ship. He sounded like he was really dreading it. "Get home safe." The comm clicked off.

Lavender chuckled. "Oooooooh." Kalara laughed.

The sound of engines echoed across the area and in came the ship. It's pilot commed "Hey, heard you guys needed a ride.

"Gavin!?"

"Hi Kalara."

Lavender said "Yeah, we do. We just snuck into the Dreadnaught and beat the crap out of a Cabal tank!"

He chuckled "Well you can tell me about it all the way home."


	7. Chapter 7

They transmatted down, and Kalara noticed the band on Gavin's arm. The band itself was blue, with the Gaurdian shield in white. "what's the new band mean?" she pointed. Gavin raised his arm and looked at it, then looked at her. "Tower Gaurd."

"Huh?"

"Some of the Gaurdians that lost their ghosts decided to stay, and have beeen tasked with keeping the peace here in the tower.

"Ah. I see." Kalara nodded.

"There haven't been a lot of incidents, mostly skirmishes, loud arguments, and the occasional drunken brawl in the commons areas."

another nod.

They stood there for a minute, then Gavin's comm dinged. He listened for a minute, then replied "Be right there."

He turned back to the group. "I gotta go, some kind of disturbance on the medical level." he shook his head. "Probably one of the sick Gaurdians trying to get away again." he sighed. "There's been a virus of some kind going around. Not bad enough to warrant a respawn, but serious enough to keep a Gaurdian from leaving the tower." they nodded. "See you later!" he jogged towards the lifts.

They stood there a bit longer, trying to think of something to do. Lavender finally said "I wonder how long it'll take them to crear out all the Cabal."

Kalara glanced over. "does it matter? They're fighting the Hive and the Taken. They'd probly distract the hive enough for us to slip past."

They stood there a moment longer, then headed over toward the lift to wait for Gavin. A moment later, the door swished open and he hurried out, face pale. Lavender ran up first, but he didn't stop moving. "Gavin, what's wrong?" "We have to talk to the Vangaurd leaders NOW!" he broke into a run.

"Oh no!" Lavender knew something BAD was going on. Kalara and Zanthyr followed.

Gavin skidded to a stop when he reached the Vangaurd leaders, and tried to catch his breath. "The virus." He looked from one to another. "It's not a virus." The others had caught up to him.

"It's nanotechnology."

"What?"

"The Vex... they've somehow developed some kind of nanotechnology, and they're using it..." He trailed off when his gaze met Kalara's. "It's..."

Two civilians walking through the next room shouted in alarm, and a group of ghosts whizzed past, hovering in the back of the room. Six Vex Goblins were walking straight towards them. Kalara fired at the same time as Lavender. They fell.

Zavala demanded "How did Vex get into the tower!?"

Gavin took a deep breath, then started to explain. "They didn't. The Vex Nanotechnology uses matter conversion. nanites can do that. The Vex have somehow been infecting Gaurdians with the 'virus', as we called it, and they carried it back here."

Zavala asked "is it contagious?"

"No. Once inside it's intended victim, it starts converting their mass, which is what causes the flulike part of it. Depending on how healthy the person it is, it could take anywhere from a day to a matter of hours."

Ikora softly said "So those were Gaurdians." she looked from the Vex to the six ghosts hovering at a distance.

Kalara and Lavender both dropped their weapons. Kalara suddenly felt sick. "What did we just do?"

They looked at Gavin. Lavender looked to the ghosts. "We had no idea." she looked back to the Vex.

One of the ghosts hovered over, the others stayed clustered together where they were. It scanned one of the Vex, and muttered something about "indistinguishable from the real thing." It turned and slowly hovered back to the others.

Zavala continued. "We have to find out where this virus is coming from and stop it before the Vex can infect anyone else. Is there any indication of how Gaurdians are being infected."

Gavin took a breath to reply, but Lavender beat him to it. "Um, would it happen to be small and black and dartlike?"

She yanked the projectile from her midsection, and held it up to look at it. Gavin took it from her, inspecting it. Kalara felt a sharp pain as well. She looked over at Zanthyr. He'd been behind her, and she didn't see anything on him. She looked down.

It had caught her on the right side of her lower chest, right below where her chest armor ended. She pulled it out. "I think this confirms it." She calmly handed it to him. Lavender took a step back. "Wouldn't just respawning get rid of it? I mean, our ghosts have our data."

Kalara shook her head. "It doesn't exactly work that way. Our matter is converted into data when we die, then the ghost uses a series of complex algorithms to combine the present data with the original data to restore us."

lavender blinked.

"I learned a few things about ghosts."

Gavin commented "The last few Gaurdians infected were changed within minutes." he looked at the two of them worriedly. Lavender looked down, then at her hands. She shrugged. "I don't feel anything."

"Me either." Kalara thought for a second, then took of one gauntlet and set it on the table, rolled up her sleeve. The vein of her arm was black. One eyebrow went up. Gavin walked over. "That's very strange."

Kalara turned from the table, pulling her dagger as she went.  
gavin took a step "woah, hey, hang on!" He gently grabbed her hand. "You can't just release it like that." Kalara sighed and stopped. She looked very troubled, but put the dagger away. She raised her arm and looked at it again. The dark line was beginning to fade. She turned her arm over and gasped. It was appearing on her skin, escaping through the pores and into a stream that ran down her arm. She held out her left hand to catch it. "Shouldn't it be, you know, moving or something?"

In the background, Lavender yelped and yanked off her own gauntlet. Surely enough, the virus was being pushed out of her, too. "It's not moving or anything." she noted.

Zavala asked "so what does that mean? Why didn't it effect you two?"

Lavender smirked. "We're immune." Kalara smiled back.

Zanthyr asked "But why?"

Kalara chuckled. "Think about it. She motioned a finger between the two of them. "We're not your average Gaurdians."

Feeling they were getting sidetracked, Zavala said "Go to the Black Garden. Find the heart of it and put a stop to the Vex for good." Zanthyr said "Well guys, let's do it."

Zavala said "Not you."

"What?"

Zanthyr turned to Zavala. "They are going because they are immune to the virus." He glanced at Lavender and Kalara. "The rest of you stay here."

Kalara asked "If I may, we have to cross the exclusion zone on Mars. That's Cabal territory, heavily fortified."

Lavender argued "So? We're a two-gaurdian wrecking crew."

Kalara glanced at her then continued. "It's not a matter of strength, it's a matter of numbers. The Cabal have fortifications and at least a small army." another glance to Lavender. "We have strength, yes, but trying to shoot ten directions at once and melee at the same time won't work. We need the strength of our Titans."

"Gavin no longer has a ghost."

Kalara summoned hers. She instantly knew it was a mistake, but a neccesary one. She saw Zavala glance at it, then nh7ereplied, dissaproval evident. She winced inwardly at the tone he used. "You were told to remove the augmentation chip from your Ghost over a week ago. Not to mention tampering with a Ghost's programming is absolutely forbidden.

He glanced at Gavin, who looked over at her without moving and added "A Ghost is only supposed to have one Gaurdian. And a Gaurdian can only have one Ghost."

Her Ghost mumbled "That's what I said." Kalara wanted to say something to it but didn't.

"When you two return, I want that chip removed and handed over to the Vangaurd. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Kalara's ghost dissapeared, whispering in her ear "He can be very scary sometimes."

Kalara didn't answer.

"We will discuss the rest later."

Kalara gulped.

They didn't notice until it was close enough to catch Gavin's attention, but one ofthe Ghosts in the group hovering at the far end of the room had floated over. It cirled him, glanced over at the Vex, and then back to him. It made a sad noise, paused, then scanned him. Gavin looked suprised.

Lavender stammered out "What-what just happened?" the Ghost dissapeared and Gavin listened for a second, then said "He says his Gaurdian is dead, there's no way to bring him back. So he chose to delete that data, and scan me instead."

He held out his hand, and it appeared, peering up at him shyly. "Don't worry, little Ghost. I'm not going anywhere. He smiled. His Ghost beeped, spun it's finials, and dissapeared again. He looked back at Zavala, who looked from one Titan to the other.

"Alright. But you two only go as far as the Exclusion zone. No further." Two nods. "Get going, Gaurdians." They summoned their Ghosts and went to orbit.

As they went to warp, Kalara's Ghost said "I don't think we'll get a second chance at this. If we pull this off, we can save the Traveler. If not, the Vex will seize our worlds."

A few minutes later, they were out of warp, and transmatted down, surveying the orange-red landscape. Kalara's Ghost said "The Gate Lord's eye is still charged. Let's head for the gate." Kalara glanced to the right. They summoned their sparrows and sped down the path toward theit destination.

Kalara suddenly stopped, eyeing a small round building. "Hold up." She backed up her sparrow a bit, then eyed the symbol on the building. "Sand Eaters."

she jumped off her sparrow. Two Phalanxes were ambling out of the building. Kalara pulled out her Rocket launcher. Gavin and Zanthyr exchanged a glance, but hopped off anyway. Kalara snarled "Go ahead, come at me!" Two more appeared behind them.

She whirled, firing. Both flew backwards, armor smoldiering from the impact. A trio of Legionaries thudded out of their mountain-base as she reloaded. Gavin ran and jumped, landing between them. He power-punched the first in the back, and Kalara yelled "Move!" He jumped to the side as she fired. They stumbled. She fired again.

Gavin picked himself up. "what is with you? they weren't even in our way!"

Zanthyr answered for her. "Payback?"

"Not payback." Kalara growled "Revenge."

Gavin glanced over his shoulder and backed up to where they were. Kalara glared at the next four. "For Mylo." She threw a grenade. "He was only a level six." The Legionary grunted when the blast hit, but kept coming.

Out of rocket ammo, she brought out her sword. It's purple stone glowed softly. She launched herself forward, slashing the hand holding it's weapon. The legionary made a startled cry of pain as it connected, and she whirled, aiming for it's throat as she swung.

As it fell, she phased and jumped through the other, coming up behind it to thrust her sword forward into it from behind. It fell.

"He was in the tower three days!"

Another Phalanyx rounded the corner and she threw her dagger into it's skull. she paused a moment, taking a shuddering breath. "And it was my words that brought him here."

She turned, walking back towards the opening. She paused right before it, glanced down and to the right. "He was just a kid." She shook her head.

"Hey, hey, C'mere." Zanthyr walked up, and pulled her to him. She let her head fall onto his chest. They stood that way for a full minute before she finally pulled away, nodded.

As they started to walk out, something glinted to their right. She walked over. Whatever had caught her eye was between two crates. She reached down to pick it up.

It was a Hunter's knife. Mylo's knife. She silently tucked it into her belt, reminding herself to reunite the two next time she was alone.

As they summoned htheir Sparrows, she said "One of his classmates blamed *me* for the incident, guess he kinda was right." another shake of her head. "The way I reacted was probably a bit callous, even. But talking softly to him just wasn't working."

zanthyr commed back "Did you tell him to go find a Cabal base to attack?"

"Well, no."

"Okay. Did you... tell him to come here to Mars?"

"No."

"Then how could it be your fault?"

A pause, then "I told the group that they had to train or they wouldn't be able to stand up to bigger, stronger enemies. Or something like that."

"Well, then I don't see how it *could* be your fault."

Kalara went silent. She couldn't argue with that.

"I was supposed to train them. They were my class, my responsibility."

Gavin put in with "They're Gaurdians. You can't babysit them all, all of the time."

They rounded another corner and zoomed past another group. Gavin commed "Just keep going. As long as they don't get directly in front of us, we can outrun them."

They continued on, down the winding trail, and entered the open space beyond the mountains. Off to the right was a long, tall building. She slowed to look at it Several pillar-like sections stood out from the rest of it, making it almost look like a giant wall of some kind. Her HUD read "SCABLANDS Meridian Bay, Mars".

As they approached, they could see they were actoually towers, sitting taller than the rest of the building.  
Two Lagionaries fired at them from the top of the lower portion of it. She eyed the building. "Probably a hundred Cabal in there."

Lavender said "Too much trouble."

"Kalara had slowed, eyeing the Cabal forces. She paused, then said "Yeah." She hit her boost to catch up to them.

About a mile or so further, two Legionaries jumped out from the boulders to their right. Gavin and Zanthyr jumped from their sparrows and punched one each at the same time. Zanthyr stumbled back. Two psions had been in the shadows behind their Legionary comrades. Gavin punched one, ducking under the other's swing. He caught it with an uppercut to the jaw that sent the creature flying into the air before it fell limply.

"Looks like we're having only light resistance from the Cabal."

Kalara commed "I'm suprised. We must be on the outer edge of the Cabal territory."

They rounded the rocks and a Phalanyx was hunkered down in front of the boulder. Gavin didn't see it until it fired, catching the Titan in the throat. He choked, hand going to his throat. Zanthyr launched himself over him, fist glowing as he punched downward. The Phalanyx slammed into the boulder behind it and bounced. Zanthyr punched it again, just for good measure.

Lavender commed "I see movement bahind those walls ahead." and nodded to Kalara. The two ran toward it, Lavender going left, Kalara going right, firing wildly.

The legionaries stomped into the opening between walls with their back to the titans as Gavin reappeared. Both pulled out rockets launchers. Gavin smirked inside his helmet. "On three. One, two, three." Both fired and the Legionaries flew forward. Lavender and Kalara shrieked over the comm.

The titans walked forward and had to try not to laugh.

"Oh sure, laugh it up." Lavender was pinned halfway under one legionary, Kalara had all but dissapeared under the masss of the other. She managed to gasp out "Can't... breathe.."

The Titans grabbed the creatures and yanked. The dead cabal rolled off their teammates and Kalara coughed. "You try getting stuck under eight hundred pounds of alien and see if you feel like laughing!"

Gavin chuckled.

They summoned their sparrows and sped through another set of canyons, and down another slope. Kalara's ghost said "The Vex are going to do everything they can to keep us out of the Black Garden."

"Yeah, and we're going to do everything we can to give them a Very Bad Day."

They slowed as they exited the canyons, and Gavin spotted the ring up ahead. "I see something."

Lavender commed back "Yeah, that's the gate to the Black Garden."

They glided down the slope and slid to a stop in the area before the swirling blue-and-black vortex.

"Well, I guess this is as far as you two go."

"Are ya sure?" Zanthyr hopped off his sparrow sounding hopeful. Kalara just nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't want you guys to get infected by that virus." They embraced, then she looked over at Gavin, who was gently hugging Lavender. Gavin commed "You know, we could sneak along anyway", but she shook her head. "I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you."

Kalara hugged Zanthyr again. "We won't be long. I promise." He nodded. "Take as long as you need."

Kalara said to them "The Tower neeeds you guys to protect it anyway, in case any more infected Gaurdians come back." she looked to Gavin. "We'll be back soon." They noddded and transmatted away.

Lavender walked over to where Kalara was gazing at the gate. After a moment, she yelled "Last one in's a rotten egg!" And ran forward.

"what the!-" Kalara started, then realised Lavender was just trying to bring back the happy free-spirited style she'd had before everything went downhill with Jarin and the other recent events.

"Hey, Wait up!"

"Well come on slowpoke!"

Kalara sighed and sprinted forward, leaping through the gate. She still didn't understand her teammate's archaic phraises, but she guessed whatever a 'rotten egg' was, she was it.

She approached the gate, it was like reality itself was shifting. The edges of her vision vibrated back and forth, almost making hr dizzy. Then, it cleared, and she was someplace else.

Her Ghost sounded "Where are we?" If this is the Black Garden, it's not on any map of known space and time." there was a slight pause before it added "I guess we... Just keep going?"

"Definitely not Mars." Kalara muttered. She stumbled forward, slightly disoriented from the forward-backward motion of reality as she passed throughthe construct, but Lavender appeared, reaching out to steady her. Hey, you okay?"

"i'm fine." Kalara put a hand to her head, then when the world stopped spinning, looked around. "This looks like Venus."

"Yeah, I know, Right?"

Kalara felt her head start to ache slightly. One ofthe side-effects of being transmatted a long distance. Someone had dubbed it "slight neural disruptance", but she wished it would just go away. Lavender ran forwrard, through the ancient structure. Kalara followed, eyeing the Vex goblins coated in moss. They weren't moving, but she suspected an mmbush at any time.

Lavender near-whispered over the comm "I'm halfway, I think. Creepy Vex are down the hall from you." she tiptoed back, then started as she bumped into one of the unmoving Vex Goblins.

Her ghost commented "They're in some kind of stasis."

Kalara commed "Wait for me, I'm not too far behind." She caught sight of Lavender, who had frozen n the center of one room, staring at one Vex. "Is it just me, or can you hear them, too?"

Kalara tilted her head. She had heard with her ears the noises hey had been making. Suddenly, the noises converged inside her head.

"They know we're here!" They hurried forward, catching four Vex Goblins by surprise to the left.

Lavender was right behind her. "There's more up ahead." Kalara glanced behind her at Lavender. They ran and jumped, throwing orbs of void energy at them from above. Lavender called "I see some further on. Going to get them."

Kalara caught up just in time to catch a trio of Harpies floating behind Lavender, who had gotten ahead of the Goblins and was dispatching them with an open-palmed strike each. Kalara grinned and pulled out her auto-rifle. She aimed for the glowing 'eye' and fired at each once, each of the three harpies fell.

"Easy peasy."

She wondered when she had started to repeat her friend's archaic phrases. Then she remembered, they both had previous lives before the golden age. She shrugged it off.

She suddenly saw a flash, and felt the energy pass thourgh her armor. She gasped, feeling the burning of the blast. A Minotaur had appeared behind the Harpies, using them as cover. Kalara started to switch to her rocket launcher, but Lavender jumped over her, activating her super. She came down using a 'fist of havoc' after the Minotaur fired the second time, and it disspeared into fragments of burning light.

"thanks."

"no problem."

They turned right. Kalara whispered across their comms "Please stay with me. The worst thing we can do is get seperated. We can each hold our own, but we're better together."

Down another set of steps, past another Goblin and a Hharpy, and they turned left, listening. Kalrara turned her head to the left, then the riht. "It almost sounds like they're singing." Lavender ducked behind a square pillar. "Yeah, but about what, and to who?"

In front of them, there was a flash of bright blue light, which turned into a ball of energy, space itself being opened, rearranged. Lavender called out "More Vex." Kalara put her back to the wall, to Lavender's right. She waited for them to appear, then ran forward, tossing off a grenade as she phased and slid past them. Three of them exploed. She brought up her auto-rifle at the same time Lavender fired her rocket launcher.

Kalara gasped.

Lavender smirked as the missile slammed into the ground in front of the vex, sending them flying back, missing Kalara. Lavender walked up to Kalara. "I have better aim than that. Heh." and walked past her.

"You scared the crap out of me!" Kalara admonished, following.

They walked down more steps, followng the winding path, until there finally was an opening. Lavender stopped suddenly. "it's louder." She looked to Kalrara, suprise on hrer face. Confusion. Kalara nodded. "I hear it, too."

what to stepped through the opening into the venusian sunlight, not sure what to expect next.

It was the edge of a drop-off. But the trail headed to their right. Kalara's ghost commed them as they walked to he edge. "There's something extremely dark below..

Neither of them answered. They were expecting something dark. But both knew that they had to defeat it, whatever it was. Off in the distance below them, what looked like dark-colored steam was rising up. Lavender starred at it, almost mystified. The sound they had heard, almost like a mechanical trilling sound, had gotten louder. Lavender stared into the rising fog. "They're singing to it." She said, almost entranced. After a moment she shook it out of her head and walked away.

They edged around the wall of the construct to the right, and Kalara eyed the Vex Goblins on the high rocks across from them. They ducked between slabs of rock and Lavender fired, taking out two Harpied. Kalara stayed a little behind her, checking that nothing had come up behind them.

Suddenly something hit her in the back. She ducked back to find that the Vex across from them eren't Goblins, but Hobgoblins. She took aim and fired, missed.

Then something slammed into her back, sending searing pain racing through her. Something big and nasty was gloating just out of sight right where they had been headed. She heard lavender cry out, and the two took off for cover back around the cornerbefore it could finish the job.

"What *was* that?" Kalara panted, trying to catch her breath. Lavender leaned out to see and ducked as a huge orb of burning energy sizzled overhead. "I dunno, but it's big and mean."

"And ugly?" Kalara supplied. Laevnder threw her a glance. "Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood."

Lavender ducked into a squat and edged out to see. Kalara switched to her sniper rifle, sighted one hobgoblin, and fired. The shot connected and it fell. She aimed at the other one, waiting for it to appear from behind it's cover. She spotted one horn and fired, but the shot slammed into the rock instead. Finally, it reappeared and she fired again, ending the distant threat.

Lavender eyed the Vex creature in front of them as it fired again, completely missing her. Kalara spotted a group of Goblins partially concealed by the tall grass and flowers. She sighted two through her scope, but the third dissapeared. she guessed it teleported, or time-travelled or however they moved.

There was a shadow of movement behind the grass. Kalara aimed and fired, then hit the last one in the head. "Crap!" The enraged Goblin ran toward them, but she punched it in the midsection. It collapsed. Lavender finally looked out long enough to get a good look at it. "It's a Cyclops."

It looked like a giant floating eye with three long bars, two on either side slanting upward on an angle, the third pointing straight down. The armor partially covered the central "eye", which was producing the energy. Every time the weapon was fully charged, the armor would slide outward so the 'eye' could fire.

Kalara tried to shoot it twice with her sniper rifle, but it had no effect. "We can't get close enough to use a melee attack." she thought quickly. As though picking up on her thoughts, Lavender pulled backthe loading bar on her Rocket launcher. Kalara blinked "When did you get that?"  
"This old thing? I've had it for a while." Lavender stepped out from the rock and fired, hitting it squarely in the eye. Their HUDs had a little bar reading the status of their opponent. It went down to ten percent." Lavender smirked and reached for another ammo pack. Her smile fled. "I'm out of ammo."

They ducked behind their cover as another shimmering blue orb sailed past. "I don't have anything but my auto-rifle also." Kalara frowned. Lavender leaned over and fired off four shots, then ducked back to reload. "Well, maybe we'll get lucky." Another blue orb shimmered past. Kalara watched it sail through the air, nowhere close to them. "Yeah." She nodded to Lavender and both popped out from behind the rock firing at the center of the Vex machine.

It exploded, and both whooped and did something Lavender had called a 'high five'. They jogged across the open space and into another building, turning left. Three Goblins appeared out of nowher and Kalara opened fire. One got close enough to take a swipe at her, and she hit it with an open-palmed strike.

Another huge bolt of energy slammed into them, and they skittered back behind cover. Kalara ran towards it and took out three Goblins. Her Ghost said "The Vex here are powering that barrier. Take them out. Lavender ran and slid up behind Kalara's rock. "I've seen one of those before. But my HUD is saying it's a Divisive Mind."

Kalara nodded. "You keep it busy, I'll get behind it." before Lavender could ask what she was doing, Kalara had backed up, ran, and double-jumped up over it, doing a flip as she came down to glide behind another rock. The Divisive Mind turned to fire at her and Lavender pulled out the Special Weapon Ammo synthesis she was carrying. She popped up and fired her sniper twice. Kalara commed "I thought you were out of ammo."

"I forgot, I had special ammo synthesis. Sorry."

Kalara tossed a grenade at the floating creature's back. It exploded. The Divisive mind's 'health bar', as they had dubbed it, fell a bit more. Lavendr called "Keep it busy, I have an idea."

Kalara popped off a couple shots and Lavender grinned. She summoned the storm energy she used so frequently, and tendrils of electricity danced across her armor. "when I say cover, duck behind it." She jumped up and Lightning raced down her forearms and out of her hands. "Cover!" Kalara dissapeared behind the boulder as Lavender let loose. The The Divisive Mind shrieked as it was struck, and exploded in a shower of sparks and lightning.

Lavender floated to the ground. Kalara peeked out. "Is it dead?"

"Do the Fallen smell bad?"

Kalara laughed.

Her Ghost said "Barrier's down." They headed for the next opening, what looked like an old circular conduit of some kind. Fragments of it still hanging overhead and floating in the air.

They descended a set of steps into anotherset of hallways. Kalara almost sighed, but looked around instead. "i wnder how far these tunnels go down."

Lavender commed back "we're about to find out." and jumped ahead.

A trioo of Vex Goblins were waiting at the bottom of the steps, but Lavender landed with a bolt of lightning, and all three dissapeared in the wake. They found themselves on another drop-off. Tey walked to the edge. Kalara leaned left to let an energy bolt past. "There's more Vex below." She sighted the Hobgoblin and fired, the Vex machine dropping where it stood. "Time to go take care of business."

They descended the steps, dodging Goblins and Harpies, up another set of steps, past more Vex then down another, until they finally reached the gate that would lead the to the center of the Black Garden. Kalara's Ghost said "Dead End. The heart of the garden is just beyond here." It pausewd, then added "This place is just one big machine... Get me close to the clusters." Kalara eyed the round portals.

Kalara glanced left, then right. "My HUD is picking up on a LOT of Vex activity."

Lavender started to generate tiny electical arcs. "That's okay."

Kalara stopped her with "we need to remain unseen for now. Till we know how many Vex we're up against."

But Lavender had allready launched herself forward towards the first access point, calling behind her "If we don't get them now, they can call for more."

she didn't see the Hydra to their right, until it fired. Lavender yelped as the enery bolt caught her in the right side, burning thorugh her armor. Kalara ducked behind cover and waited. Lavender reappeared next to her, then bolted towards it, summoning a thunderstorm. She jumped up, phasing as the Vex Hydra fired at her. Kalara brought out her own glowing orb of energy, hurled it at the same time. The Vex machine whined in it'S mechanical language as it dissapeared.

The two hunters whirled as more Vex appeared. Kalara sighted a pair of Harpies through the scope of her sniper rifle, and Lavender did a douoble-jump-glide to take out a pair of Hobgoblins. "I'll hack this construct, you get the other?"

"Okay. On it." Kalara ran up and slid past a group of Vex Goblins, Auto-rifle snapping up to dispatch each reached one of the access points and summoned her Ghost. It floated up and scanned the round gatelike construct.

I can manipulate them, I just need to break their manifold encryption." After a moment, the center of the structure lit up green. Kalara's Ghost beeped, exclaiming "I did it! let's hit the other one." she commed Lavender. "Let's kick 'em, where it hurts!"

Kalara went left toward the other access point. Explosions could be heard over the comm, and Lavender declared "Allready am!" She headed left and her Ghost said "It's working. A spire is forming." Kalara glanced left and out in the center of the area, a tall square structure had started to form, appearing from lines of white light. The Vex data streams.

Meanwhile, Lavender laughed as she tossed a grenade at a pair of Harpies, sighting a hobgoblin with her sniper rifle.  
BANG!  
She missed. She frowned and switched to a rocket launcher. She fired, noticing the second down the slope was blown to smithereens along qwith the first. She spotted Kalara and waved as her fellow hunter jogged up. "Took you long enough." she teased. Kalara huffed and the twostalked down the slope cautiously.

Another trio of Harpies were floating off to the left, hidden by the wall Kalara ducked behind a block of stone and Lavender opened fire, hitting each squarely in the centyer. "Perice of cake." she tossed off. A minotaur appeared out of nowhere and the energy bolt slammed into the side of her helmet.

Kalara cringed as she fell, then leaned over to channel her light into her friend's ghost. Lavender reappeared, ducking behind the wall across from her as anbother bolt flashed past. Kalara smirked and pulled out her own rocket launcher. She popped up and fired off a shot. The minotaur dodged to the side. "Slick bastard." she ducked back down.

Lavender had gone back to her sniper, and stopped, as though concentrating. Listening. It reappeared and she fired three shots in rapid succession. It fell. She sighted a Goblin and fired, taking off it's head. "Oops."

"What?" Kalara leaned past her cover to look. The headless Vex was running towards them, firing wildly. Lavender added "I forgot they do that if you take their head off."

Kalara waited till it had reached the rock and punched it in the midsection, where it's computational matrix was. It sparked and fell. They edged down the ancient steps and scanned the area. No more Vex. Lavender walked up to the second circular control access. She summoned her Ghost.

It floated over to the access point, scanning it. "It's all starting to make sense."

The duo scanned the area to make sure no more Vex were coming.

Lavender's ghost continued "Let's see if it worked!"

Kalara turned and ran toward the spire that had formed, Lavender right behind her. Atop the square stone pillar at the center of the area they were in was a spire, four sides of white lines of energy, with a circular orb towards the top. It looked like a regular Vex confux, but they both knew this was no ordinary conflux. They exchanged a glance. Lavender took a breath.

"ready?"

"Ready."

Lavender summoned her Ghost and it floated forward to scan the conflux and activate it. It scanned the spire, ans told them "All we need is permission to enter. As a gate Lord." a moment later, the conflux activated, a rectangular object appeared floating before it. It was thinner than it was wide. Before either Gaurdian could blink, it shot up into the air in front of the gate, twirled and fragmented, the center of it floating in front of the circular center of the gate.

It lit up, seding a brilliant beam into the cofux at the center of their area. The conflus reflected it into the remaining shards of the rectangle, focusing into the center of the gate.

The plates of the circular gate slid past one another, starting at the bottom, sliding behind one another to open the gate.

The two hunters exchanged a look, then ran for the gate at the same time. They creossed the threshold and reality itself seemed to pulse and waver. Kalara's ghost appeared over her shoulder. "So, think you can kill a god?"

"Don't think I have a choice."

Below them,about twenty Vex Goblins were frozen in what seemed to be a standby mode, arms raised prising the pulsing black mass floating in the center of the Black Garden. One by one they activated, arms lowering, and turned to look toward the pair of Hunters. Lavender looked at the group, listening. "I can hear them." her head tilted slightly. "They're..." she trailed off, the Vex below her them seemed disinterested for a moment. Lavender paused. "The garden's heart.." suddenly she gasped, and her focus snapped up to the writhing black mass floating in the ring at the center of the area. "Oh no, nononono." She backed up to the door, which had snapped shut behind them.

"What?" Kalara urged her to tell her what was going on.

Lavender whispered "The heart of the black garden... The center of the Vex mind..." She shook her head, knowing she couldn't go to orbit. Their ships were back on Mars. She paced, suddenly terrified.

"It's the darkness."

Kalara looked over at the pulsing mass, a chill crept up her spine. "You mean...?"

Lavender nodded. She stared at it for a moment before taking a deep breath and paused. She waited a moment, then stepped forward, helmet tilting as though listening. She glanced at the Vex then continued, an eerie calm to her voice. "I get it now. I understand."

Kalara wasn't sure who Lavender was talking to until she continued.

"The darkness that ended our world. It's here. Part of it, that is. I can hear it, through them." Lavender took a step forward, and continued."When the darkness nearly ended our world, the Traveler's light stopped it. In it's final moments, the Traveler sent out a light so bright, it destroyed the darkness. It created the Awoken, from those who had fled to try to escape the darkness , but were too late. It created the Ghosts that would find and create the Gaurdians. The darkness was destroyed, but a small part of it survived somehow, and hid itself from the traveler, here."

"The Vex found it and protected it, worshipped it. This is a realm between worlds." She looked at Lavender. "We're in a pocket dimension of Vex making." Her gaze turned back to the floating black mass. Kalara felt another chill creep up her spine. "That's part of what nearly ended humanity?" She glanced sideways, but Lavender didn't answer.

A Vex fired, it's energy blast pinging off Kalara's shoulder armor. "Lavender, there's about twenty Vex down there. We should get going." But the hunter didn't move. Another shot sizzled across Kalara's arm. "That's just annoying. Lav; You with me?"

"Lavender?"

The Hunter was staring into the mass, listening to the sounds she was hearing. Kalara glanced downward as a Goblin's shot whizzed past. "Lav, I hear them too. You have to snap out of it." but it was like the Hunter was listening to something much louder.

Lavender turned to her wordlessly, and started down into the area below. Kalara gave her a curious look from inside her helmet, but tried to focus on the Vex. She was so distracted, she didn't notice her teammate walking through the Vex, who were completely ignoring her until she was at the edge of the open space below.

Kalara jumped down, getting in front of her. "woah, hey, what's going on here?"  
Lavender didn't repond. Instead, she looked up at the dark mass, trying to walk forward. Kalara huffed as another Goblin fired, hitting her shoulder. "Lav, talk to me." She put up a hand to stop her friend.

Nothing.

A pair of vex got too close and Kalara landed an open-palmed strike on the first, punched the second. She realised the Vangaurd leaders were probably listening on the other end, monitoring them. And she didn't want to give them any more reasons to mistrust either of them. "Oberon, cut the feed." Lavender had nearly reached the center of the open area. They were surrounded, but the Vex were ignoring Lavender. Kalara jumped straight up, activated her supercharge, and slammed down to punch the ground, sending every Vex coming up on them flying back for a twenty foot radius. Lavender was still moving. She summoned her ghost. "Oberon! Cut the Feed! Now!"

On the other end of the line, They were indeed being monitored. Zavala glanced at Cayde, who shrugged. Then he commed Kalara "Baxtin, report. what is going on?" The sound of heavy weaponfire rang out , then "Umm, pleas hold." the line went silent for a full minute, and then what sounded like a scream, followed by more gunfire. Kalara could be heard yelling something unintelligible, then "Cut the feed! NOW!" THe audio from her ghost cut out, but the video remained long enough to see Lavender under the dark mass. Kalara appeared, and her hand covered the eye of her Ghost. The feed went static.

Zavala's voice came ocross her comm "Baxtin, what's your status? where's Lavis? Report!" Kalara knew the Vangaurd commander meant business when he used their last names, but she had more important matters to attend to. She 'facepalmed' another goblin, and ran, slid, and looked back as her grenades exploded. she double-jumped to where Lavender was standing before the darkness, gazing up at it.

"Lavender. Avaria, listen to me." the Hunter's gaze met hers, but Kalara gelt another chill. "Lavender, I know you've seen the darkness of the Hive, of thorn. it marked you. But that mark, I know darknes stried to take you, but I know that you are stronger. Those marks... You saw the darkness, it tried to take you, but it proves that you are stronger. Those scars are a testament to your strength. You faced the darkness once, and you won."

the hunter turned to her. "Did I?" Her voice was eerie.

"Yes, you did. You remember that battle. I do. You're still the Hunter I know. You'll allways be the Gaurdian I know I can depend on.." she smiled slightly. "Thunder and Lightning."

Lavender's voice sounded darker, somehow. "And what if the light was always just a lie?"  
"What!? Avaria Lavis, have I taught you nothing!?" Kalara pasted her hands on her hips. "what if Gavin heard you taking like this!?"

Lavender suddenly thought of her boyfriend, and why she and Kalara were here. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She remembered their conversation on the way here. That if it was going to be her and Kalara, what they would call their little duo. She took a step back from the mass and stumbled, dizzied by the effects of the darkness that nearly took her over. Kalara caught her, adding softly "We're here to vanquish the flast remnants of the darkness. We have light. We can do this."

Lavender looked at her, then nodded, and focused on a group of five Goblins. She focused, lightning starting to appear around her. It flickered for a moment. She shook her head and tried to ignore the whispers tickling at her conciusness. Kalara summoned an orb of white energy and launched it at the Goblins. They looked around. Lavender had her auto-rifle out and had jogged left to take out three more. Kalara noticed another trio off to the right and tilted her head. "Hmm, sniper rifle or rocket launcher?" she jumped, double-jumped, flipping headfirst as she came down behind them. She punched the first, the second, dodged the third before punching it as well. "Yep, Zanthyr was right, punching things *is* fun."

She ran over to where Lavender was busy with six more Goblins. One fired into her back armor, making the hunter swear.

"Got this." Kalara punched it, sending it flying. "I think that's the last of them."

Lavender nodded, and they eyed the swirling writhing dark mass. A stream of white energy leapt out of it ans into one of the three statues on their side of the open space. Kalara called "Cover!" and they skittered under the roof of whatever the structure was, behind the stone walls between them and the darkness. Kalara looked over. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I think so?"

Kalara nodded.

Lavender added "If I do that again, shoot me again. I don't ever want to have that happen again."

Kalara gave her a firm stare, and even though she was wearing a helmet, she was sure Lavender got the look. "It won't. You're stronger than the darknness. I know that. We got this, Gaurdian. you with me?"

"Allways."

"good."

Kalara stepped out from cover just in time to see what was happening. Her ghost said "It's bringing that statue to life!"

Lavender waited for it to finish transforming, then leaned out to fire a rocket, paused, then asked "why didn't you use my name?"  
Kalara answered "I wanted to remind you of what we are."

"...oh."

Kalara glanced over. "It wasn't an insult. I was just trying to remind you of what we're fighting for. Sort of... an encouragement?" she hoped her friend hadn't taken it the wrong way. But Lavender nodded.

Kalara paused again to check her ammo before swinging around the rock to fire off a rocket at the vex creation. It fired back, but she swung back behind the wall before it could hit her. The shot whizzed through the open space she'd been standing in. She called "Hey, Lav, pincher maneuver?" Th other hunter tilted her head. kalara added "Yeah, maybe not. there's not that much cover on the other side of it." Lavender pulled out a machine gn and pullled back the loading pin. "Nah, but we can have some fun with this anyway."

Kalara held up a hand. "Hold on." She thought for a second. Lavender said "What? We're way better than the other Hunters. We got this."

Kalara nodded. "But we only have so much heavy ammo. We need a little strategy her."

"Pfft. Strategy. Right." and Lavender had dodged an energy bolt, firing wildly as she went. She double-jumped over the next platform and ducked behind a rock. An energy bolt hit her in the shoulder and she glanced over to see a pair of Harpies. She opened fire and they exploed. She ran back towards where Kalara was behind cover and spotted the Vex creation (Darkness creation) still firing at her. She leapt up into the air, using her double-jump to get even higher.

but the machine saw her and fired as she came down. She tried to duck but it was too late.

"Gaurdian down."

Kalara facepalmed. She reloaded her own rocket launcher and stepped out from cover, firing twice while it was distracted. She started when Zavala's voice came across the comm. She forgot the leaders were waiting to hear from them.

"Any time now, Baxtin."

"Sorry. We had some Vex to take care of. The Darkness, it transformed one of the statues here into a robot. It shot Lavender, but I'm trying to lure it away so I can circle back around to her." she hoped that was convincing enough. "It got a little crazy for a second."

"and the video feed?"

"Oh, right. sorry." Kalara switched the uplink back on. She leaned out to the right, looking for any cover. She found a square of rock and ran for it. Two harpies were coming from her left. She lobbed a grenade, glancingg over as they exloded. She facepalmed a Goblin approaching and ducked behind the rock, hoping the Vex creation had seen. An energy bolt whizzed overhead. She popped up and pulled the trigger on her launcher.

CLICK

"Crap." She reloaded quickly, noting how the energy blasts were getting gradually closer. After the next one she stood and fired off another rocket, then as the creature stumbled back, a second at it's head. The shot went wild and Kalara ducked back down. "Almost. Come get me, big bad an' ugly." Another bolt sizzled over as she switched to her auto-rifle.

She emptied the magazine before ducking. Then she ran sideways, jumping up on top of the structure and around to where Lavender was. "No cover" she said to herself. She took down four more vex Goblins headed for her. She turned back around, her HUD registered it as "Eschaton Mind".

She thought quickly. "If I try to get Lavender, it could hit me and I'd go down, too." She checked her ammo. Two more clips of heavy, five special, and a bunch of auto-rifle ammo. Even though that was prettymuch useless. A red energy bolt pinged off her armor. A pair of Goblins were standing a short ways off. Kalara fired, both fell. She jogged over. "Ammo. okay."

She stopped and thought. She focused, then ran and jumped, gliding high up into the air. She focused, and a huge ball of void energy appeared in her hand. She hurled it at the Eschaton Mind and it roared when the void energy slammed into it's chest. It fragmented and dissapeared. Kalara ran over to Lavender, grabbing up a couple of the small white pyrimidal shapes the Vex creature had dropped.

Her Ghost said "The Heart is dying. just keep fighting!"

She channeled her light into Lavender's ghost, and she reappeared, loo0king around. "Yeah, the first one's toast." Kalara shrugged. The two looked over in time to see a pair of white enery orbs shimmer from the black mass like twin coments, and the second statue started to sink to ground level. They jogged for cover.

Kalara leaned out long enough for her HUD to give her a name over the figure. "Imminent Mind". A pair of Goblins fired from their right. Kalara hit the first in the head, trhen the second. They ran forward toward them, firing wildly.

"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" Lavender teased.

"No."

Kalara whirled and took off another head. The first had reached her and she facepalmed it. Lavender punched the second. The one running up from behind them reached them and Kalara punched it, too. Two more appeared and Kalara switched to her sniper rifle, taking off their heads while Lavender took out a hobgoblin. The both stood back-to-back for a second.

"You *are* doing that on purpose." She eyed the two headless Vex runing at them.

"Well, maybe. Heh."

Lavender sighed.

Kalara punched both.

They moved back to the left and Lavender reloaded her rocket launcher, firing at the giant monstrosity. It moved left and the shot went wide. Lavender cursed. "I'm out of heavy ammo."

"Me, too."

Kalara popped out and lobbed a grenade at it.

L:avender went right with her sniper, fired off a pair of shots at it's head then came back "That's not working, either."

"Welll, we still have our supers. Ready for a little Thunder and Lightning?"

Lavender grinned, nodded. "Let's do it."

They ran up the steps to the top of the structure, ducking behind a block of stone. Lavender counted. "One... two..." both said "THREE!" and Launched themselves into the air. Lavender's armor hummed with energy, and Kalara glowed white. She turned mid-glide and hurled her light at the same time as Lavender channeled lightning down her arms focused with her hands, straight into it. It glowed and dissapeared. both landed. Lavender cheered "Woo! Last one!"

Both watched light stream over to the last statue. Kalara backed up a few paces, then ran over to the opposite side of it. She peeked out as it turned toward her. Then Lavender popped out, waving her hands next to her head, doing 'the Rude Taunt'

"U.G.L.Y. You aint got no ailibi, you ugly!." she eeped and popped back behind cover as an energy bolt passed her. Kalara fired, Lavender wasn't done. "Yeah yeah, you ugly! Woo!" she punctuated this by launching a rocket at it.

Enraged, the creature turned and and started firing at where she had just been. Kalara busted out laughing. "Where do you *find* all these old phrases!?"

They could hear Cayde's laughter over the comm "That's a pretty old one, alright."

Lavender commed "I remember things sometimes, remember?"

"Well I'm from before the golden age, too."

The duo met in the middle, behind the stone wall. Kalara looked at her friend. "Care to fasttrack this?"

"I am having fun, but I guess we should get to work, huh?"

"Yeah. The darkness needs to die. Once and for all."

Both jogged around up the steps to the top, ducking behind the same stone block as before. Kalara counted "One, Two, Three." They jumped up and Lavender lit up with electricity. Kalara was nearly distracted when her fellow hunter jumped, double jumped, and yelled out

"Leeroy Jenkins!"

She came down half a second before Kalara lost focus, then had to focus HARDER (and not on the 'what the heck was that just now!?') phrase. She came down and slammed a ball of swirling energy onto the creature's head. Suddenly, both realised it wasn't dead.

"Crap!" Kalara brought up her auto-rifle and fired, her HUD indicating a tiny bit of health of the Vex monster. The creature took a step towards her, then fell.

Kalara shoved a fist into the air and shouted "Wooooo!"

The darkness seemed to collapse in on istself, shuddering and suddenly imploding into a white light that expanded outward from where it had been half a second ago. It was like reality exploded into brilliant white, then they were someplace else, the night sky once again visible, but with a light that seemed almost like morning, the sky was getting lighter and lighter.

Kalara's Ghost said "The light returns to the Traveler!" It shounded overwhelmed with joy. "The Speaker is calling us home." Lavender grinned and started dancing. Kalara laughed and joined her.

After a bit, Kalara said "Come on, lets get out of here."

Lavender summoned her ghost, and Kalara folowed suit. The two teleported away.

END NOTES:

The theory on the Awoken is something I heard someplace, and makes sense to me. It would take an immense amount of light for the Traveler to destroy the darkness, and I think one of the side-effects (or possibly it was intentional) would be to restore those who died trying to leave Earth to run from the Darkness, but were too late. Plus I think the mixture of darkness then light right after would make a pretty mixed up (not dark not light) people.

The Darkness being at the heart of the black Garden was another theory I really like, which is (in my opinion) the reason behind the Speaker's speech in the cutscene. The hive are evil, yes. But the Darkness itself is the original world-ending horror. The Hive *serve* the darkness, they aren't the darkness.

Also, I just heard that Phrase "Leeroy Jenkins" in a youtube video somewhere. Apparently it means something along the lines of (an enthusiastic) "Let's do this!" I hope I'm using it in proper context. I found it hillarious the first time I heard it, and had to google it. I was just *dying* to use it in something somewhere.

And I know why Cayde got the joke on the "UGLY" taunt. The reason is in some of the Cayde-6 fan-lore. And the phrase dates back to the pre-collapse era. 


	8. Chapter 8

that evening, the Gaurdians who were in the tower had been called to the tower Plaza, what Lavender called "the courtyard", to hear the speaker. Kalara glanced over at Zanthyr and Gavin on his other side, smiling. The speaker began.  
"For centuries, we feared the forces of Darkness, Massing against us." He paused slightly before continuing, looking over the small crowd of Gaurdians present.

"We sought to hide and cower beneath a broken god." he paused, then said "No more." He looked to them, then back at the audience. "These Gaurdians show us what we are, what we have allways been, and what we will be again." Kalara smiled to herself.

"We are what remains of the light. and we will not be stamped out."

The speaker's words echoed up to the shuttle bay, and lone figure standing there. Lavender walked up to the figure, at the edge of the landing area.

The figure turned as she walked up. It was the Exo stranger from Venus, leaning on her rifle, looking up at the Traveler.

"It's a day for pretty speeches and medals." the stranger said. "Bt we know the real fight takes place out there."  
Lavender nodded.

After a moment, the stranger lifted her gun and held it out to her. "Take this."

Lavender reached out and took the weapon, looking at the weapons as the stranger continued. "There's so much more, Gaurdian. I've seen terrible things born out in the darkness." she paused and turned to look at the Traveler. "Every moment brings them closer."  
She took a couple of steps forward, then added "All ends are beginnings. Our fight is far from over."

With that, the stranger swalked forward, dissapearing in a rush of blue particles. Lavender blinked, wondering if it was a transmat beam or some other form of technology. She looked down at the weapon, and saw where one word had been engraved in tiny letters on the barrel. 'soon.'

She walked to her ship and took off from the bay.

Kalara noticed the ship leaving from the plaza, but only briefly wondered who it was. After the speaker was finished, everyone dispersed, and Kalara hurried to the lifts. Zanthyr caught up. "Hey, wait up!" she waited for him, and he asked "where ya going? Aren't you gonna stay and talk with the other gaurdians for a bit?"

Kalara shook her head. "I'm not a real social person. But you go ahead, have fun."

He looked back at the crowd. "Allright, but some of the Gaurdians are having a get-together down on the commons level later. Say you'll be there?" she laughed at those 'puppy dog' eyes he was giving her. "All right. I'll think about it." She patted his shoulder and one of Zanthyr's friends waved to him. "Okay, see you later." he jogged toward the other Titan.

Meanwhile, Lavender fired off another round of shots with her newest weapon. She looked at it. "Hmm. It's good, but it could be just a little bit better." she shrugged, looking up at the sky. "It's probably evening at the tower. Guess I'd better get back." She teleported out, her ship whooshing softly as it went into transwarp. A few moments later, she started feeling tired. When she teleported down to the tower, she headed straight for the elevators, ignoring the ping of an incoming message.  



End file.
